Of course I do.  It comes on almost daily as the temp is 100+ so the demand for electricity is high, so we get flickers all the time.  

I use a laptop for everything, so I wouldn't know, but I never unplug it for more than a minute or so without turning it off. Power surges are unheard of where I live, and in severe storms I unplug it. Though, I do connect to the internet using a cable, so I guess the surge aspect is moot. However, there's a lot of network on my network. It wouldn't be the first thing hit (not that I'd have time to unplug it or anything, but it's furthest from the wall behind a modem, sharing with another computer.

I bought a used one at a yard sale, no paperwork. Dunno if it works, power went out yesterday and when I got home, my PC was off. Shouldn't it have stayed on?

Depends on what the UPS can do and how long the power was out.

Yes, I live in a sixties era house and I don't trust the wiring. However, living in CA, we don't usually have severe weather like thunder storms here (I do miss the sound of thunder and heavy rain of my home state in GA). If my computer fried unexpectedly (knock on wood), I would be a very sad boy.

Sixties Era? Hah - You Wuss! 1890's Farmhouse - {G}. Parts of it evidently date back to a 1830's fur trading outpost (though I'm not sure there's any actual direct connection going back that far)

Although, amazingly enough the wiring is good - My Grandfather did it in the 60's with milspec (at the time) shielded wiring. Wish I had as much confidence in the power companies wiring frankly, but at least it was a *pleasant* surprise given the joyous fun that ripping out and redoing plumbing was, and for some reason - understand I love my grandfather, but the phone line was *one* line, going from room, to room, to room, rinse repeat, through a two story farmhouse.

But the wiring is solid and grounded and everything - I was sure I was going to find aluminum wires in the attic or something - {G}.

Jonnan

Most will only last 'minutes', not 'hours', depending on load/drain.  Their intended use is more for 'brown-outs' than black.... though can be set to 'normally' shut down your computer and thus avoid dumping issues, etc.

They're only as good as the life of their batteries....which is finite...so second-hand isn't ideal.....bit like a second-hand fire-extinguisher...or air-bag....;)

I agree 100%. A UPS is an absolute must have when rendering an animation in 3dsMax or Vue.

i use an APC PowerChute. it's a modest "entry level" UPS. i think it'd keep my PC running for about a minute, thirty before its battery died. but i find it much more useful for countering the sudden drops in the san diego power grid, which are frequent (especially during the summer).



yeah, but as a real man, i am afraid of electrical arcs. that's why i usually use the master on/off switch on my PSU

actually, speaking of fun with electricity, when i was young i was moving stuff around on my bedroom entertainment unit when suddenly everything turned off. when i pulled the unit forward to check the wall outlet, i found a dime had fallen in between the outlet and the surge protector plug (which had come a little loose, and was hanging a bit forward). well, the time melted about 3mm down into the plug's prongs before the house circuit blew.

i still have that dime somewhere, along with the penny i accidentally dropped into a paper shredder. good times!



my UPS has a USB hookup that tells my PC to shut down when the battery reaches a pre-defined limit (i have mine set to send the shutdown command when there is only 45 seconds of power remaining). also with the APC brand, you do have the ability to replace and even upgrade the battery to suit your needs, for a lot less than buying a new unit at retail prices.

I'm curious. Does anybody prefer one brand/model over the others?

Mine is an APC, but with no paperwork, all I can do is plug it in and go.

Since I have cable phone it's a must for me. So I've got both my phone(cable & phone modem) and PC hook up to the UPS. That way I can still call out when the power goes out. (Yet when I lose my cable I lose everything: TV,internet and phone.)

APC is the big name in UPS units. Other than that, just make sure you get one with enough VAs that it can handle your machine for a few minutes without melting.

I concur. I have owned an APC for ~a year now, and it has performed flawlessly.

APC is the brand to get for home users. the only better options are f***ing expensive, and designed for server rooms.

I have one for each of my 5 computers, complete with power conditioning (power source feeds the batteries, then they feed the computers) - No brownouts and no spikes- 1350 VA each - big Belkin UPS.