Bill: At first, I thought you were talking dieting! But good catch on your part.
On Jun 12, 11:44 pm, insightinmind <[email protected]> wrote: > We've entered "lightening season" and I have begun unplugging my > systems as storms approach. I have concerns for my G4s: Yikes!, QS > 2002 Dual 1GHz, and soon to be had DA Dual 533. I sometimes do this, even though I use two APC BackUPS Pro 450s, old models which have a nice capability to deal with brownouts. I guess they call that automatic voltage regulation (AVR). These units deal nicely with appliances in the house which sometimes give a momentary dimming of the lights, like the clothes washer and vacuum cleaner. I hear them click quickly on/off. > > Does this place a drain on the PRAM batteries? Yes. > I believe someone > contributed awhile back, that when the psu capacitor drains, that's > when the batteries are used more. What might be a time limit on such > a capacitor drain? Don't know. > > I've come to mistrust surge protectors, and really don't want to go > into UPSs ... but are they immune to lightening? It depends. They may sacrifice themselves if lightning strikes the house, the tall tree 10 feet away, or the transformer at the street that serves your house. But our electric company installed new equipment including fuses on the lines after Hurricane Isabell, and our service has become much more stable. Years ago, I lost my first APC unit when, on a clear bright sunny Saturday morning, the power company generated a massive surge. That saved the computer gear. Neighbors lost TVs, microwaves, wall thermostats, etc. After that incident, I installed an all-house surge protector in my Square D entrance panel. Last week, at 6:40 AM, when I had left everything plugged in, there was a lightning strike nearby, with instantaneous lights off for about two seconds. It burned out a transformer about 150 feet from my house which supplies my neighbor's house. No problem here. And I have not seen any other service vehicles at my neighbor's place. > > I also disconnect my DSL modem and ethernet cables: that's how > lightening fried my last QS mobo [and a USB connected Nikon 5000ED > circuit board (now back fresh as well)] ... the QS I think actually > had problems since eBay. My replacement mobo is behaving really well. I sometimes unplug the other gear and cables. If, by unplugging, you accelerate the drain on your G4 tower PRAM batteries, that is no big deal. You just easily replace the battery. But with the new style iMac computers, that really is a big deal, because the internal battery is not easily replaceable by users. For that reason, when away from the house for vacations, I leave the iMac attached to the UPS, and the UPS powered on. I unplug everything else. But first, I backup our stuff to an external drive and DVDs which then remain off line. When I had Verizon come in to install their FiOS service so that I could get rid of Cox Communications, I installed a power receptacle near the entrance panel off a little used light circuit instead of having them plug their entrance box into the clothes washer receptacle. The service tech did not want my point of use surge protector. Neither did he want the coax cable going to their router come via my APC surge protector. He specifically said their equipment is adequately protected. But I can still unplug my own ethernet gear. > > All this unplugging has become rather comical (well, to my cat and > dog, since we're here, mostly to ourselves). > > Any suggestions about how to accomplish this better? Whole house surge protector. Except for D Square from Home Depot, that may require an electrician. UPS with AVR. Unplug when convenient. Al Poulin --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
