Buy yourself a goddamned UPS, NOW!

[PerfeK]

This morning as I was finishing up a rigorous session of BF2 power-leveling, a goddamned transformer exploded down the street, causing a brownout(?). Just milliseconds after the explosive sound, my computer violently shut off and rebooted itself.

At first, it refused to even boot up. I kept getting stuck at the BIOS screen. Eventually I upped the cpu voltage, reset it to stock settings and got my baby running. This was the least of my problems.

I didn't even have firefox open when the ish happened but somehow, my bookmarks are all lost. Wait, it gets worse.

Battlefield 2 refuses to work. I can get it open and browse servers but once I am in one, my keyboard and mouse stop working ingame. I have to ctrl alt del to get back and force the program to close. I uninstalled and reinstalled BF2, changed drivers from 7730 to 7772 but nothing is working. It's not my video card. I can run 3dmark05 just fine still. What could the problem be?

The moral of the story? Put anything with cash, sentimental or just plain old "mental" value behind a decent UPS. Trust me, it is worth it.

What a coincedence though. This happened just two days after my father bought a $200 APC UPS for his DTR notebook and monitor.

 

[w00t]

sorry to hear about that man must really suck.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Ouch. That's why I say you *need* protectino for your computer(s).

 

[n7]

Reformat...hopefully your HDD wasn't damaged...

 

[angstsoldat]

whats a UPS? i thought that was mail service or something

 

[PerfeK]

Originally posted by: n7
Reformat...hopefully your HDD wasn't damaged...

Yeah, I just might do that now. I'm not looking forward it though.

Should a clean wipe fix the BF2 problem? If it doesn't, that would probably mean that a piece of hardware is messed up. This is not good. Not good at all.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Just wondering, what's your psu?

 

[PerfeK]

Originally posted by: angstsoldat
whats a UPS? i thought that was mail service or something

I don't know what UPS stands for but it is a power supply with a battery that you put in between your computer and the wall jack. It runs your computer off of the battery and keeps the battery charged through the wall.

This gives your computer clean power and prevents surges from reaching the things behind the UPS.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[PerfeK]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo
Just wondering, what's your psu?

It is the Antec 380W (24A@12V) which comes with the Sonata.

 

[n7]

My guess is your system actually ate some extra power, & in the process, the HDD got a tad jolted, causing some file corruption.

It could have damaged some hardware too, but you won't know till a clean install has been done.

 

[angstsoldat]

you mean PSU ? anyway sounds neat. Btw was your bf 2 cd in when that happened? hopefully it didnt nuke the CD somehow :x

 

[PerfeK]

What drivers will I need for the reformat? I'd like to download them all now before I wipe. I know I'll need motherboard and video card drivers. Am I forgetting anything else?

 

[MDE]

UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply

 

[angstsoldat]

oh nice thx

 

[n7]

You'll need mobo chipset drivers, video card drivers, sound card (or integrated) drivers, perhaps SATA drivers.

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: MDE
UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply

Correct.

In Addition,

PSU = Power Supply Unit.

 

[KDOG]

Yes, I have a APC BackUPS 500 and I think its prolly the best money I've ever spent computer wise. I'm about to get another one to increase runtime even more. Probably a bigger one to run the computer while this one to run the monitor and cable modem...

 

[EmoshBZ]

I hear ya!!!!

Where I am living has many power surges and black outs. A good UPS is a MUST and ONLY stupid or real cheap people do without. Heck, many puter stores here void warranty UNLESS you purchase a UPS along with your system. Its a fact of life here, and has seved my butt MANY times.


In short, I wholely recommend buying a good UPS.

 

[Newfie]

Were you using a surge protecter?

 

[bjc112]

Won't a good surge protector protect against BROWNOUTs and blackouts?

 

[Newfie]

well, a surge protector protects you against surges. Also, if equipment that was attached to a surge protector was damaged by a surge, they usually have a policy where they pay you the difference in damages. Also the definition of a Brownout is a Period of reduced voltage, I dont believe that would cause damage to your computer. A surge from the exploding transformer would tho =)

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: bjc112
Won't a good surge protector protect against BROWNOUTs and blackouts?

No.
A surge protector will not allow the computer to see a very high voltage if the line voltage increases all of a sudden. But, it will do no good if the voltage drops below the acceptable level (brown out) or completely goes away (black out).

 

[Aisengard]

So the problem was not extra power to the system, but lack of power, which is much less dangerous to hardware I'm assuming.

 

[Newfie]

Im thinking a surge from the exploding transformer caused the trouble...Im not sure if low voltage can damage a computer...wont it just shut down?

 

[Maximilian]

I saw a UPS once in some hi-tech building. It was a gigantic thing, basically a person sized battery, i got told only buisnesses use them for their servers. I assume you get smaller versions?