jainen Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 >>My APC has the red light (for unstable power) lit at all times....<< That usually means your house is not grounded. It isn't too hard to add a third wire to the circuit your electronics are on. Drive an 8' copper pole into the ground outside and run a heavy wire through the wall or floor to your plug. You can even use a nearby cold water pipe. This won't meet current building codes, but it's cheap and safe and effective and the connectors and know-how are at your local hardware store. (Tell them it's for a detached dog run or chicken house.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAXBILLY Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Disagree with Old Jack, at least in my case. I live in the lightning capital of the U.S. and my computers would be toast many times over without good surge protection and UPS. taxbilly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted July 28, 2007 Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 We had a lightening strike that fried our TV, microwave, and a few other appliances. It fried the UPS but not until it protected our computer and peripherals. We replaced the UPS (or maybe just the battery) but continued to use the computer. We did upgrade our electrical service at a later date when we finished the attic, but still buy an UPS for each computer. I even have a little portable one for my laptop, just in case. I'm sold after the first UPS we had saved that computer. It's a small price to pay to have one less thing to worry about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tax Prep by Deb Posted July 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 28, 2007 Again I just wanted to thank you all so much for your imput. That's why I love this community and am so proud to be a part of it. It's nice to agree and sometimes even to disagree because it gives us, the poster and the reader, a wealth of info. When it comes to computer's I will be the first to admit I know nothing! So I welcome all comments and I am certainly going to follow through by getting the power back up you all recommend. It's not something that happens alot around my town, but there is a lot of construction going on in my neighborhood and I think that is the source of the power failures, but as KC mentioned I know it's not good for my computer, and I certainly don't want to be caught off guard and half to run out and buy a computer just to keep working. I like replacing my computers like I replace my car, I change just before it dies! Again, thanks to all who replied! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanmcq Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 Idiot & Jainen, thank you for your input. I have the computer and all peripherals plugged into the only outlet that is on its own circuit breaker; the old computer was plugged for quite a while into a plug connected to a circuit that had the kitchen, my bedroom and part of the bathroom and a hall plug on it. It blew regularly, when I would forget I had the space heater on and would use the microwave, or vacuumed at the same time I was washing clothes.....my wiring is REALLY screwy. The plug I currently have was definitley added later; big metal box and external wiring. And is a three prong. I will check to see if its grounded. Thank you again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJack Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 I just had another power outage a few hours ago even though its clear sky and electric cables underground. Guess what??? My FAT table is still FAT and my computers rebooted and are still computing. Printers, scanners, and all electrical equipment are just fine. I have run test and have declared there are no really bad things happening. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacun Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 When a laptop freezes... (all the time) I hold the power buton for 35 seconds and when it wakes up, both FAT and I are FAT. New technologies are not like the old ones that you had to wait 1 minute before rebooting because even if the power was out, the hard drive and other peripherals were still spinning and rebooting right away could damage your FAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJack Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 I am the luckiest guys I know! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 When a laptop freezes... (all the time) I hold the power buton for 35 seconds and when it wakes up, but FAT and I are FAT. I gave my old Thinkpad (not so old, but no longer compatible with ATX) to 10 year old Grandson. He had it 2 days and called in a panic because it froze. That is when I learned about holding in the power button for 5 seconds or more. Sometimes it pays to read the manual and sometimes it pays to have a good friend or relative who is computer savvy. This will also work with desktops if CTRL ALT DEL fails you. I have had a UPS for years. The only time I really needed it to do it's stuff, it failed me and that is when we found out the batteries were dead even though the green light was still glowing. Have new batteries and have not had need for it since. Computer was not damaged. Computer is plugged into good surge protector which, in turn is plugged into UPS. You do the best you can and hope that your equipment doesn't let you down. However, I still and always say that you must BACKUP religiously. That is your safest safety net. Am baking bread today and can smell that it is ready to go into oven. Greetings to all. :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tax Prep by Deb Posted August 3, 2007 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 You do the best you can and hope that your equipment doesn't let you down. However, I still and always say that you must BACKUP religiously. That is your safest safety net. I couldn't agree with you more. However it seems like it takes a shock or two to get us back in the habit. I spent a good part of yesterday backing up so that I could replace the battery in my PC (just in case something went bad). I actually do back up frequently, especially during the busy tax season and I just upped my frequency for quickbooks for the clients I do bookkeeping for. This was emphasized recently when I picked up a new client who lost all his info going back to 2003. He hasn't filed his corporate taxes since then so I get the joy of reconstructing three and a half years worth of work! (oh well it pays the bills!) :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie P Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 The red light indicates one of two things, most likely the first. First, make sure that there is a ground to the power outlet. Use of a 'cheater' plug that converts the cord from a three prong to a two prong basically means that you have no ground. Some older houses wired by homeowners sometimes connected the neutral wire to both the neutral lug and the ground lug because they had the situation where there were only two wires going to the outlet with a 3 prong outlet. While they are actually eventually going to go to the same point (ground), this is not advisable as it defeats the purpose of having a safety ground and allows current from the neutral wire to go back through the ground lug (shortest path to ground). Second, the 'hot' and 'neutral' wires in the outlet could be reversed. Once again frequently common when homeowners wire the outlet instead of an electrician (or an electrician who is rushing/tired), they put the black hot wire on the lug for the white neutral wire. Hopefully the ground wire actually exists in this situation. You can tell which situation you have if you have a 3 prong outlet by going to your hardware store and buying a couple dollar 'tester' that looks like the end of a power cord with 3 leds. It will tell you what's wrong with the outlet. This should actually be corrected as when there is a surge, the UPS or surge protector will shunt excess power to the ground. If the ground is not there, NEITHER the UPS or Surge protector can actually do any good. In a no ground situation, the surge protector actually just acts as an extension cord with multiple outlets as the Metal Oxide Varistors (MOV's) in the surge protector can't shunt the power to another conductor. Wow - you sure do have lots of knowledge way beyond taxes! Thanks for the information. We learn each day. Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laurie P Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 You do the best you can and hope that your equipment doesn't let you down. However, I still and always say that you must BACKUP religiously. That is your safest safety net. Deb, I agree about the backup. I have an external westgate harddrive that I use as a backup to my laptop. I have it scheduled for each morning (IU am normally up late working so the AM works for me) which I know is alot but I do not want to lose any work. After tax season I am wanted to move to a dedicated computer to house all the data files a nightly scheduled backup in place automatically. Since I am networked internally I think this will not be too hard to add to. Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAMalody Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 I might make a suggestion here....make sure your backup is done or kept offsite. If you have a fire/earthquake/flood/etc. and you backup is located at your site and it is destroyed or severely damaged, there goes your data. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel in Hawaii Posted August 3, 2007 Report Share Posted August 3, 2007 Wow - you sure do have lots of knowledge way beyond taxes! Thanks for the information. We learn each day. Laurie I am NOT a tax professional. I wanted to be an electrical engineer when I was in college. Now I write software, work on computers, cars, and last night I was installing a sprinkler system. As far as another person's test dealing with having a power outage, it's like a slot machine. You put your coin in and pull the handle. Most of the time nothing happens, but occasionally you hit the jackpot and get to pay people like me money. I see more of these types of things since I am in the business of fixing these types of problems. No, I don't sell UPS's, I just recommend them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacun Posted August 4, 2007 Report Share Posted August 4, 2007 I agree with you AND I always suggest UPS to eveybody but it is more important to back up your data. As I said before, I have never used a UPS and I always hold down the power buton for a few seconds to power down problematic computers. I have never had problems with my FAT being reduced or taken away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted August 4, 2007 Report Share Posted August 4, 2007 I might make a suggestion here....make sure your backup is done or kept offsite. If you have a fire/earthquake/flood/etc. and you backup is located at your site and it is destroyed or severely damaged, there goes your data. I do a complete backup of hard drive on the first of every month with Rev drive and Ghost software. Use alternating disks which are kept in a safe. I also do incremental timed backups daily with the same hardware and software. When it comes to tax returns and bookkeeping accounts; I back up as I work onto Zip disks. Just cannot stress enough how important all of this is. Have never had a hard drive fail; but have had other kinky things happen when I was able to restore files and/or programs from one or the other of the backups. Also never go anywhere between computers (desktop and laptop) without one or more jump drives on hand. May sound like overkill and probably is, but the freedom from worry is wonderful and the trauma of losing your information can be devastating. My safe is fire and waterproof and all recovery disks are kept there as well and offsite. Night all. Hubby came in from fishing and appreciated the fresh homema de bread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted August 4, 2007 Report Share Posted August 4, 2007 Sorry for the repeat...having a hard time editing prior post. Where is delete when you need it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.