hi guys,

this is my first post in this forum...

for the past few days, there have been frequent power cuts in my place of residence.
so, my PC is getting switched off more than once a day since i don't have a UPS.

can someone please tell me how badly is a PC effected due to abrupt power cut..


i am running slack 9.1
my PC's config:

AMD Athlon 2100XP
ASUS A7V86-SE motherboard
128mb ram...

thanks,
kushal

hi there,

any electrical / electronic device will be affected to some extent by repeated cycling of power, but what matters here is degree.

equipment is designed, obviously, to be turned on and off; repeated on / off operations will shorten the life expectancy, but by how much is by no means easy to predict accurately. an example is a light bulb - if it is switched on and left on, it will last longer than if it is used in the normal manner - switched on or off according to lighting conditions required.

if you are suffering a great number of power interruptions every day, you might want to look at a ups; if it's just the occasional outage, maybe the expense isn't justified.

i would be more concerned about data integrity when your pc powers down unexpectedly..

By suddently getting off, all open Files are lost and all other open things.
If you use a journaled Filesystem like ext3, it's not damaged !

I think the power-on is dangerous: Due the heavy load, a voltage drop can happen who can damage your PSU. Also tun-off turn-on rapidly can kill many devices very easy.

I would buy a UPS or/and set the BIOS to stay off after a power cut.

BTW, I don't agree with the light bulb: It's anyway switched off and on 50/60 times per second, but only at the zero point. But if you switch it on, you may pick the point with the highest voltage, and that's bad (From zero to 110/220V).

er, the point i was making with lightbulb analogy...

when a cold lightbulb is switched on, the filament heats to white heat, causing mechanical stresses in the filament. certainly, there is a zero-crossing point when a bulb is powered from an ac source, but it's the heating from cold that causes the greatest risk, and which is why a lightbulb failure often occurs upon initial power-on. it is initial power-on conditions that pose the greatest threat to many electrical / electronic systems (eg inrush current during power supply reservoir capacitors charging, etc..)

er, we're straying away from computers here.... sorry...;-)

Well... power cuts can't be good.

It happened to me for a few days and I called the power company. Sometimes they have to switch load between substations especially at the beginning of summer. However, that should just be one or two times. Call the power company. Many times it is a problem on a pole near your residence. Takes them just a few minutes to fix. And that is what fixed my problem.

Having said that, I would get a UPS. You never know when one jolt is going to kill a component.

BTW, welcome to LQ

I really wish people would tell the "TRUTH" about ext3 and reiserfs partitons,
it is possible to "hose" and "corrupt" these partitions!!!
they are NOT as "safe or solid" as some would have you believe!!

Anytime your disk gets the power cut, what is really important is whether or not it is in the midst of writing, because it if is, whatever it is doing is unfinished and no good, doesn't matter what file system. Journaling file systems are more resilient, but they aren't exactly like the stainless steel cockroach that some would have you believe!

Get a UPS, they are cheap, last for years, and will save you many hours of agony one day, let alone abuse on your expensive hardware. I never build a system without one personally...