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How Really Power Surges Destroy Your Computer and How to Avoid |
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Power surge are one of the most feared incident on electronic
devices. Same as computer, they are really susceptible to
power surges. Even though surges usually last only milliseconds
(and are somewhat filtered by the transformer in the power
supply), that high voltage can exceed the withstand voltage
of the insulating layers inside the integrated circuit chips
and burned everything inside your computer.
The power delivered to your electronics devices and computer
is stable and constant, in theory of course. In real life,
it doesn’t work that way. Often power surge occurs when
the normal flow of electricity is interrupted, and then started
again, or there was an occurrence that something sends excess
electrical energy into the system. Any number of events, from
lightning strikes to power failures, can cause power surges.
Even your own electrical devices and computer can cause them.
Refrigerators and air conditioners, for example, have motors
that turn on and off, diverting electricity to and from other
appliances and producing low-level power surges. On computer,
internal peripheral can cause small surges that can reduced
your computer lifespan or even destroy it completely.
On computer a switching power supply is designed to convert
AC into various DC voltages. The internal transformers on
power supply that do this, the capacitors to bridge over dips
in the line power, all these are rated to handle a certain
amount of energy at any given time. If you go outside of range
of that certain amount, you overload the parts. Maybe marginal
parts fail and die. Maybe they let through more energy than
they should. In some cases, maybe things catch on fire. Like
things you saw on fried chips due to extreme overclock. Cheaper
Power Supply Units will be using cheaper components - the
upshot of this is the components have weaker tolerances, and
don't handle going outside their tolerances as gracefully.
To prevent it you need a good UPS (Uninterruptible Power
Supply) to protect your computer and another electronic appliance.
However no UPS can withstand power of nature. Even a good
UPS cannot tolerate extreme power of lighting. During storm
or rain situation you might want to consider turn off you
computer and unplug it. Also unplug phone lines and another
line like coaxial cables that are being used for cable TV
and broadband connection, since they are susceptible to lighting
strike. Power surges caused by lighting are seldom to happen
though there are possibilities.
On computer you will face another problem. Internal surges
that can’t be prevent from external UPS. This caused
simply by turn it on and off your computer. So every time
you turn on and off your computer, you actually decreased
life span of your computer and adding possibility to destroy
the component completely. And there is no way to avoid this
matter for now. Since there is no data how it will affect
your computer. I suggest that you scheduled your computer
to be use as efficient as possible.--FA
About the Author:
Article by Dicky Satro Sudiro. Fresh Daily Computer News
- Digital Binary
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