Why PCs crash? The Top-10 Reasons

[redbeacon]

Ten reasons why PCs crash

as witnessed by thousands of hapless computing folks worldwide

 

It says "Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy"

“Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications.”

 

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD for short. Anyone who uses Microsoft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

[redbeacon]

1. Hardware Conflict

 

The number one reason why Windows crashes are hardware conflicts.

 

Literally-named hard-ware, Hardware are products that you can touch...eg Keyboard, your mouse, your plugged-in iPod, heck, even that bluetooth phone that has just wirelessly connected to your computer.

 

To understand what are hardware conflicts, let me illustrate how your various hardware, as well as other components of your PC (such as RAM) -- talk to each other.

 

Take your mouse for instance. This essential, always-connected element of the world's computers not only have to be physically connected to the computer to work..., it also has to be associated to the computer. And to do that, it has to sorta "communicate" with it. This is how the mouse moves that little arrow on your screen -- it "communicates" with your PC, telling it to translate its left-right-up-down movements into cursor movements on your screen.

 

For hardware like your mouse to communicate with your computer and to other hardware or devices in your computer, an interrupt request channel (IRQ) is used. IRQs are like rendezvous avenues to which hardware & hardware, or hardware to/from internal devices can liaise with each other and do the things that you want it to do.

 

IRQs are tagged with numbers and only one...only one can occupy this so-called rendevous avenue.

 

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

 

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the unlucky computer user tries to use both devices at the same time, voila, a crash happens.

 

 

 

Device Manager: Your one-stop listings of all your devices in your computer

 

The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through your Device Manager.

 

http://i14.tinypic.com/82bn2ut.gif

 

Often if a device has a problem, a yellow "!" appears next to its description in the Device Manager. If that's the case, and you know that your computer began misbehaving with all that Blue-screen problems right after you happily installed that device, un-install the device and re-install it again.

 

Titbit on IRQ's

 

To be fair to M$, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 computer chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. That's why it is easy to run out of them and such problems do occur. Never fret, there are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs, but we'd have to wait for them to announce it.

[redbeacon]

2. Faulty memory

 

[1] Faulty RAM (random-access memory) might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part of it is damaged and will need replacing.

 

http://i16.tinypic.com/6oya3xu.jpg http://i12.tinypic.com/6o3j7z7.jpg

 

Yes, your sticks of memory (RAM) inside your computer...those things that you buy to beef up your computer and to stop your computer from behaving sluggishly, are also considered Hardware.

 

[2] I did say earlier on that faulty RAM might be the cause of your problems. But what happens if you know that you have just bought the RAM stick(s) and you can't seem to believe that it is spoilt right out from the computer shop?

 

Well, your computer misbehaving may be attributed by you mixing different types of RAM together:

 

Mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked. It's almost like filling a car with gasoline rated with an octane level of 92, when it was meant to take in petrol above 95 octane. Same ideology.

 

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

 

[3] Parity error messages (ECC) appearing on-screen is also a sign that RAM is making your computer misbehave. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

 

[4] Are you a fan of very-old DOS games like IBM Alley Cat, but can't seem to find out why your computer keeps crashing with "EMM386 error messages" when these types of games are played? Indeed, your computer may sense that this is a sign of "Memory problems" but it isn't connected to bad RAM. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old DOS-based programmes.

[redbeacon]

3. Your BIOS settings

are they wrong?

 

Every motherboard, that is -- the whole green board that makes up your whole PC -- is supplied with a range of settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to access the BIOS.

 

Some of you may have known how to enter BIOS. Upon computer power-on, messages such as "Press the [F2] button", "press the [delete] button to enter setup" should ring a bell.

 

http://i4.tinypic.com/73b6omo.jpg

 

Once inside the BIOS (an example is pictured above), great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

 

Memory (CAS) Latency Settings

this tells your PC how fast your RAM sticks are

 

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the RAM. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SD-RAM has a CAS latency of 2. Newest DDR RAM in the market may be "2", or it may vary.

If you set this wrongly, you are giving the computer a wrong idea of what-speed RAM was installed. This can cause your RAM (memory) to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

 

EDITED IN BY ME: It's best to let your BIOS decide the speed settings of your RAM, if you're the adventurous type to mix and match different types together. (Power users, note) If you ever see an option for "Auto" in these cases, I encourage you to use it as manually setting stuff such as CAS latency make make the computer behave strangely, not starting Windows properly, or even worse in my case, the computer beeped and refused to startup altogether

 

IRQ again...

But seriously, let Windows manage it instead

 

Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to take over to hand out the IRQ numbers to your hardware (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to "yes" to allow Windows to do this.).

 

** Interrupt Request Channels, or IRQ, was explained on "1. Hardware Conflicts" , the first reason why computers crash

[redbeacon]

4. Your Hard Disk

 

http://i2.tinypic.com/6jaiogg.jpg

 

80, 60, 250GB hard drives...As they become bigger and bigger, users begin to store more and more stuff into it. Photos, work documents, MP3s.

Because of the massive space of the hard drive, users find this as an advantage to install more and more applications and games.

 

Hard Disk Fragmentation

 

What users neglect to know is that a hard disk is just like a house...it gets messy easily over time. And a messy house equates to poor outlook, and problems such as dust and allergies, including pest infestation begin to take place.

 

Ok, I swear I was digressing about the house, sorry

 

In the case of a hard disk drive, over time it starts to become fragmented. Putting it into layman terms, it is essentially piecemeal...data inside it becomes scattered all over the entire space of the hard disks as users use the computer for daily work.

 

When your computer has to deal with a "messy" hard disk like this, it has to work harder and slower. For instance, what if you want your computer to open up one of your work document in Microsoft Word? Imagine your computer rummaging through that pile of stuff in that "messy" hard drive just to get it.

 

Therefore, It is a good housekeeping practice to defragment the hard disk every fortnight (or at frequent intervals, if you use the computer a lot). Read on...

 

Solution: Disk Defragmenter

Your housekeeping maid for your hard drive

 

http://i9.tinypic.com/8af5idl.gif

Disk defragmenter showing a "before cleanup" analysis:

red lines of data that are not contiguous...they're scattered over the hard disk

 

This useful tool will simply analyze your hard drive, and will re-arrange your files neatly in the order just as it would have been expected.

 

Disk Defragmenter can be found under:

 

Start Menu >> Programs >> Accessories >>System Tools >> Disk Defragmenter

 

Also, Windows Vista users are at an advantage: Disk defragmenter automatically and quietly does the cleanup work behind the scenes when you are not using your computer. So, Vista users don't need to manually start that application to have it do the cleanup. Hurray!

 

Basic ABCs to Housekeeping

 

Hard disks will slow down and can make the computer grind to a halt (crash) if they are too full. Do some self-housekeeping on your hard drive every few months; delete whatever files that you don't need, and free some space on it.

 

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space.

 

Other Fixes

 

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation.

 

 

This can be adjusted by going to

 

Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> System Icon-Performance >> File System >> Hard Disk.

 

Give your drive the well needed checkup:

 

Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or "bad sectors."

Whilst the former is self-explanatory, "bad sectors" (if you need a layman term on this) are sections of the hard drive that are spoilt and cannot be used...

 

Much like how rust forms on metal...

 

Go to

 

Start Menu >> Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> ScanDisk

[jB]

dude your first 4 made my pupils widen, I'm waiting for the next 6 reasons

[Refugee]

number 1 problem of pc failure is USER problem....

[redbeacon]

5. Viruses

 

Virus: the most dreaded word of computer misfortunes -- even for the computer expert. Able to penetrate through a large computer environment and cause havoc, much like a plague does to a country.

 

http://i4.tinypic.com/86j43k5.jpg

 

To a smaller extent as home computing users like you and I, viruses simply causes nuisances such as inconveniences, or even to your detriment -- corrupt or erase your favourite music, your photo albums, and anything this malign specie of malware can slowly chomp on.

 

We can only do this much, but it's good-to-know:

 

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Again, this is when your computer misbehaves, but occasionally.

 

Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start.

 

A "boot sector" of a hard drive simply means the (logical) front portion on your hard drive.

A way to envision where your "boot sector" is this is that when you lay-out your hard drive's contents on a piece of paper, your "boot sector" comes first, then your data and whatever favourite junk (sorry, heheh) you put in it.

 

The primary purpose of a Boot Sector is to hold instructions that tell your computer how to start Windows (or any operating system that you have installed inside your Hard Disk). If it's corrupt, then your computer wouldn't know what to do and just halts at a blank screen with either an error message or a blinking text cursor -- all plastered on a black screen.

 

 

This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk (only applies for older versions of Windows)

 

Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab.

 

 

For Windows Vista users, your installation DVD (or CDs) should come equipped with a Repair Your Computer feature. This Windows Reinstall website illustrates how to go about using this convenient feature to fix problems with your computer not starting up Windows properly (probably a Boot Sector problem)

 

 

Anti-virus

 

Virus protection requires constant vigilance. As such, a good Anti-virus software should be the first item on the list if you are installing your computer from scratch.

 

Not only that, you'd need to have it constantly update itself. Updating an Anti-virus software periodically keeps it in-the-know of any new viruses out in the Internet wilderness.

[redbeacon]

6. Video/Graphics -related Problems

 

 

http://i11.tinypic.com/833318h.gif

 

 

Whilst almost all of us rarely have problems concerning Video or Graphics (card), sometimes, it's good to engage in a little good-to-know knowledge of something that can also cause your computer to misbehave.

 

Note: The words "Video" and "Graphics cards" are interchangeable. They mean the same thing.

 

 

Fatal Errors relating to video/graphics faults

 

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

 

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict.

 

Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> System >> Device Manager

 

http://i6.tinypic.com/6sl2heg.gif

The brand of my graphics card is VIA.

What's yours? It might be Intel?

Or a powerful NVIDIA or ATI?

 

Once there, select the [+] beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear (example illustrated in the picture above). Click it (doing so select the item blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

 

http://i12.tinypic.com/6tfs0b9.gif

Sample of a Hard Drive device that is in "conflict" with your computer

 

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it as a message on that same dialog box.

 

The way to resolve a video card hardware conflict (and any other kind of hardware conflict )is to un-check the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. This lets you pick your own IRQ (Interrupt Request, explained before)...which does not "conflict" with anything on your system anymore.

 

WARNING!

Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse. Do not change IRQ settings unless you know what you are doing!

 

 

Why is my screen/cursor/game/movie displaying itself in a funny, distorted way?

 

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to reduce the Video Hardware Acceleration setting.

 

Start >> Settings >> Control Panel >> System >> Performance >> Graphics

 

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers

 

A "driver" is a piece of software that usually comes with Hardware devices -- like your Graphics Card -- that makes the computer "recognise" and figure out "how to use it" whilst connected, so that it can work.

 

If the abovementioned faulty drivers the main cause of your problems, it's time to (sorta) revitalise your graphics card. Go to your graphic card manufacturer's official website and search for the most recent drivers for it.

[redbeacon]

7. Software

 

http://i9.tinypic.com/6ufa9oz.jpg

 

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it.

 

Note: The words "software" and "application" mean the same thing.

 

 

I don't want that software anymore...

 

http://i12.tinypic.com/6p98z6t.gif

 

Many of us have grown accustomed to the Add/Remove Programs feature of Windows -- to remove what we don't want from our computer.

 

Titbit:

In Windows Vista, it's called "Programs and Features".

 

On a Macintosh, it's even better: you simply drag an application to the Trash, and empty it...that's how simple it is to un-install (or discard) a software

 

How the Add/Remove Programs works is like this:

Everytime you install software, that software "hooks itself onto" the Add/Remove Programs feature, adding itself to the list, should you decide to un-install that software in the future.

 

But alas, most (if not all) software can't do a proper job of un-installing themselves completely, should you decide to discard from your computer one day.

 

To further illustrate, I feel that it's better to first understand what happens during a software installation...that's when you "introduce" software into your computer.

 

Software usually comes with an Installation Wizard. You know, the Q & A screens that guide you through the setup, and there are usually many screens with the familiar > buttons.

 

http://i16.tinypic.com/85wpx0g.jpg

 

Once you click the final Next >> and let the installation wizard run, it most probably will do this:

 

1. Place files and folders into your computer's Hard Drive

2. Place settings into your registry.

 

The Windows Registry is a very important directory that contains settings and options (of Windows itself, or any applications that are installed into it) that ensures their proper operation.

 

Whilst a software un-installer can remove files and folders that easily (#1), some of them actually don't completely clean up their "belongings" from the Registry (#2), let alone some un-installers completely not being bothered about it.

 

This can be compared to the garbage left behind by astronauts in space, when they return to Earth -- trash strewn around in space

 

The best alternative for a complete uninstall "cleanup" is to use 3rd-party un-installers, instead of the usual Add/Remove programs.

 

Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the Windows Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

 

Editor's Note: Better still, and a simple tip too: What I usually do is combine an "Add/Remove Programs" solution, with a 3rd-party "Registry Cleanup" application.

It's like the adage of Brush Your Teeth, then Rinse It With mouthwash -- this un-install combination ensures that the "cleanliness" of your computer is kept.

 

Windows Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. This also can cause your computer to engage in occasional misbehaving incidences.

 

 

Help! I installed something bad! Now I can't even go into Windows!

 

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up.

Apart from seeing the message “Starting Windows,” or the familiar Windows animated progress bar, you will have to press F8 way before all of these appear.

 

Safe Mode is a special command that tells Windows to start up as-per-normal, except that it will load up plain -- no extra fancy-schmancy applications that you've installed will start... Just the simple stuff that makes your screen work, the hard disks/CD or DVD-ROM, and the basic essentials.

 

http://i1.tinypic.com/6ww1jkh.jpg

Yucks...what happened to all the niceties? "Safe Mode" is so drab!

 

This kind of minimised (or shall I say, emergency contingency) environment allows you to do diagnostics: that is, find and fix problems that is prevent Windows from loading properly.

 

Lifesaving tip: You probably could invoke Add/Remove programs from Safe Mode, and un-install that stubborn application that is causing your computer to be blue...

[reddy]

great read.. well done

[redname]

one more is too many porn sites visited

[darren_soh86]

one more is too many porn sites visited

 

no man.. it shd be visiting too many porn sites n not knowing how to clean ur ass after that.. even haf sex oso nid condom ma.. if not sure will tio VD one.. lol.

[redbeacon]

8. Printers

 

http://i17.tinypic.com/6x6v4o4.jpg

 

Believe it or not, printers themselves can also provoke your computer -- just that this occurence is rare and to for this occurance to appear, something has to be overloaded. That "something" might be that your printer has overworked or tasked with too much things to do, or that your computer becomes slow and begins to do erroneous things (like crash your computer) when a print job is started by a user.

 

What happens when you "print" a document?

 

http://i16.tinypic.com/8brrpmb.gif

 

Whenever a user presses the print button to print...oh, say -- their photos, office report, a web-page, etc..., the computer goes to work processing what the hardcopy print-out should look like. Stuff like what kinds of words should go on the paper, the individual colours of the picture, even the figuring out of how the content should fit on a chosen paper size -- takes place too.

 

Once that's done, your computer takes that big piece of "printer-understandable" information (see PostScript below), and puts it aside into a buffer, a temporary holding area of documents waiting for the printer itself to pick it up and to begin printing it.

 

This whole process is called print spooling, and the "buffer" is known in the computing world as a Print Queue:

 

http://i9.tinypic.com/8g7i6ad.jpg

Titbit: looking at my print jobs, I was able to tell that my printer was switched off.

Can you figure out how I had figured that one out?

 

If your computer senses that your printer is online -- that is, switched on and connected, it tells the printer that a job is waiting in the Print Queue and that it should start printing the requested document onto paper.

 

 

Nothing is coming out from the printer!! Grrr...!

 

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a PostScript file.

 

A PostScript file is printer-readeable information on the various formatting and text of a document and how it should be presented on a hard-copy paper. These get placed into the buffer.

 

Printers have only a small amount of buffer memory. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power, slowing down the computer's performance and in some cases, making the computer sluggish, or making it misbehave.

 

Tip: Computer sluggishness can be a sign that you do not have enough memory (RAM) installed on your computer. If everything that you do on the computer slows the it down -- and you know that you have so little memory installed into your computer, it's time to head on down to the computer store to buy some more...

 

 

Now my printer is printering gibberish!! Aargh...!

 

http://i14.tinypic.com/6xzujk8.jpg

 

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and if it so happens that the computer has to deal with this erroneous information, this can crash it.

 

Printers (and computers/print servers) nowadays are smart enough to deal with these kinds of phenomenon, where there's some sort of "confusion" in the (print) buffer, or that the information the buffer is corrupted

 

A good way to clear the entire print buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds, then plug it back in and switch it back on. Doing this (also called a cold boot) will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

 

NOTE: Very old printers -- the ones that use those big and bulky beige-coloured parallel or serial printer cables, cannot be simply switched off whilst the computer is running. Please restart the computer if the printer will be switched off, then on again.

 

Only newer ones that use connectivity techologies such as USB, or FireWire are Plug-and-Play. Yep, this means you can plug a printer in, or pull out the cable on-the-fly...and the computer is smart enough to figure out what to do...

[redbeacon]

9. Overheating

 

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/6562/cpuclipru1.jpg

A Pentium 4 processor being installed

 

A Central Processing Unit (CPUs) is the main "brain" of a computer. It runs at breakneck speeds. It does everything from figuring out the answer to 1+1 on your Calculator program, to predicting in which year Mars would align with Earth. Even if you are doing Spell Checking in MS Word, or playing a game, the CPU is wholly involved in all of these "calculations".

 

Like cars, CPUs are very fast. As such, they are usually equipped with usually one cooling fan to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error.

 

In the geeky "over-clocking" world, this is a common problem. Over-clocking a processor chip causes it to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to. This is like modding a car to go faster, at the expense of engine overheating.

 

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU.

 

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/8898/ctmpphpqb8lp1kd8.jpg

Yes, that's a big and blue fan, plus metallic, toothed heat sink.

Guess where the flat CPU chip is? Sitting underneath all

that abovementioned mass.

 

 

Additional Considerations

 

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

 

 

===

 

Note: Scroll down a bit more for the 10th reason why PC's crash

[jia_yvon]

great posting them. had learned many useful stuff... upz for ts .

[darky]

regarding the IRQ settings, is there any ways other then reinstalling them?

[Lowness]

you can change them in the BIOS setting

[warrior.c.o.n.p]

hi bro.. grt stuff thr.. now i'm facing a prob, my pc bout to going down!!! wat shuld i do?? i dunno whr to start..

[zart]

what u mean ur pc goin down? slowin down? many ways to can encounter..

[redbeacon]

hi bro.. grt stuff thr.. now i'm facing a prob, my pc bout to going down!!! wat shuld i do?? i dunno whr to start..

Ok, let's tackle your problem from a broad perspective, narrowing it down as we go along.

 

What are the symptoms that your PC is experiencing -- that is causing you to suspect your PC is going down?

[lunloon]

where's number 10?

[warrior.c.o.n.p]

yesterday log on my pc as normal n suddenly a lot of small windows appear n too many of thm. n came a blue screen. after tht i log off n on again take a few minutes to back to normal. dun u noe y??? n also bout the internet. did mozilla firefox gives prob???

[redbeacon]

yesterday log on my pc as normal n suddenly a lot of small windows appear n too many of thm. n came a blue screen. after tht i log off n on again take a few minutes to back to normal. dun u noe y??? n also bout the internet. did mozilla firefox gives prob???

Refer here, thanks:

 

http://www.singaporebikes.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3890436#post3890436

[redbeacon]

10. Electricity and Power Problems

 

In SG, we are not so plagued by power outages as our officials ensure that our supply of electricity does not become disrupted.

 

However, power outages in an individual's home do happen, if the conditions are right.

 

Overloading the power circuit in the home/office

 

Whilst a multi-plug adaptor will allow you to use as many appliances as needed, piggybacking adaptors -- that is, plugging an adaptor over another one to increase the number of available power points -- will overload your home's power supply, and may trip the circuit breaker. If there was no circuit breaker, a spark and fire may start.

 

Dangerous Power Fluctuations

 

[#1] Power Surges and Power Dips

 

A power surge sends more electricity through the electricity line than normal for several seconds. This can overload equipment if the surge is huge, or if the equipment cannot take the extra power being fed into it.

 

Vice-versa, a power dip (also called a brownout) is a period of lower voltage. It causes lights to dim. If it goes low enough, devices such as your computer can shut down without warning, making the computer stop in its tracks.

All unsaved changes to your documents and data are lost. You can actually damage, or corrupt, files this way. In rare but serious cases, the hard drive may be ruined because of this.

 

Also, when the voltage fluctuates in your power line, over time the repeated small peaks and dips shorten the life span for computer parts. They wear out sooner. So, in addition to blocking high voltages, you need the ability to smooth out these variations by pumping up the voltage when it drops and stepping it down when it's too high. This is called conditioning.

 

[#2] Power Spike

 

http://i29.tinypic.com/14nn5za.jpg

 

"Spike" sounds fast, and it does sound scary, don't you think so?

 

In fact, you should (a little).

 

Unlike a power surge, a power spike is a huge jump in the electrical circuit that comes and goes in a split second. Lighting storms are one of the ways a power spike can happen.

 

If the spike is large, this can destroy the CPU and other chips on the computer's motherboard.

 

To block this kind of sudden fluctuation, a computer and all it's accessories should be plugged into a surge protector, or an equipment that promises surge protection.

 

NOTE:

Not all devices that look alike actually are alike.

 

Power outlet strips can be white, or they can be colourful, and they look very much like the strip-style surge protectors but give no surge protection at all. They are just a way to connect multiple devices to a single wall outlet:

 

http://i28.tinypic.com/35bimhu.jpg

A power outlet strip. Doesn't provide surge or overload protection, unfortunately.

A suggested method while picking the correct power outlet strip with power problem

protection is to read the packaging.

 

How to deal with power problems

 

For computers, you need a guaranteed source of power. An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is a combination of surge protector, power line conditioner, and battery power supply.

 

The least expensive ones will power your computer for 5 or 10 minutes. So in a power outage you have the time to save your work and close everything down properly. A much more expensive UPS setup can keep your network running all day when the power is completely out. If there is a brownout, the UPS automatically takes over instantly and keeps the computer running as if nothing had happened. When the power is stable again, it switches itself off.

 

You'll have to decide how much protection you are willing to pay for.

 

Editor's note: Sim Lim does sell UPS'es suited for home use. A computer shop was selling it for $60 and it protects one computer.