Power Outages--Can they harm the PC?

[eli]

Hello:

We've been having sporadic power outages here due to the heat wave. This
often causes my PC to shut down abruptly without being turned off properly.

I do not have acess to a UPS [Uninterrupted Power Supply]

Questions:

1) Aside from possibility of losing unsaved data , does this present a
threat to the PC itself or the OS?

2) Is it advisable to keep the PC turned off--while not in use--until this
crisis is over?

Any advice?

Thanks in advance:

-Eli

Windows XP Professional Edition SP2
Dell PC X-86 Based PC
OptiPlex GX260

 

[JS]

1) Yes it can, power line spikes can damage the hardware. OS can also be
corrupted, especially if you have automatic updates for software products or
scheduled tasks enabled.
2) Yes keep it off, there is less risk.

JS

 

[Guest]

I would avoid any disk changing procedures--checkdisk, partitioning, defrag,
etc. as well as not writing or editing crucial documents during this time and
turn the computer off when not using it. It really would be cheap insurance &
smart to buy an UPS battery backup.

 

[Ghostrider]

Hello:

We've been having sporadic power outages here due to the heat wave. This
often causes my PC to shut down abruptly without being turned off properly.

I do not have acess to a UPS [Uninterrupted Power Supply]

Why not? If the work is important, then an UPS is essential.

Questions:

1) Aside from possibility of losing unsaved data , does this present a
threat to the PC itself or the OS?

Yes. Abrupt shutdowns can also result in corrupted system files
as well as hardware states for devices that need to be normally
powered down.

2) Is it advisable to keep the PC turned off--while not in use--until this
crisis is over?

Without a UPS, certainly good advice to follow. An UPS does
just more than provide backup power in order to effect a proper
shut down of the computer. The presence of the battery and the
more robust circuitry tends to smooth out the power better than
an ordinary surge protector.

Any advice?

See earlier comment about mission criticality.

 

[R. McCarty]

Office Depot carries a APC UPS for $29.99 w/ Battery
backup of around 9-minutes. Worth every penny.

I would avoid any disk changing procedures--checkdisk, partitioning,
defrag,
etc. as well as not writing or editing crucial documents during this time
and
turn the computer off when not using it. It really would be cheap
insurance &
smart to buy an UPS battery backup.

Hello:

We've been having sporadic power outages here due to the heat wave. This
often causes my PC to shut down abruptly without being turned off
properly.

I do not have acess to a UPS [Uninterrupted Power Supply]

Questions:

1) Aside from possibility of losing unsaved data , does this present a
threat to the PC itself or the OS?

2) Is it advisable to keep the PC turned off--while not in use--until
this
crisis is over?

Any advice?

Thanks in advance:

-Eli

Windows XP Professional Edition SP2
Dell PC X-86 Based PC
OptiPlex GX260

 

[w_tom]

We've been having sporadic power outages here due to the heat wave. This
often causes my PC to shut down abruptly without being turned off properly.

I do not have acess to a UPS [Uninterrupted Power Supply]

Questions:

1) Aside from possibility of losing unsaved data , does this present a
threat to the PC itself or the OS?

No. Some of the 'dirtiest' power to a PC happens when UPS goes into
battery backup mode. They are often called computer grade power
supplies because electricity is so 'dirty' as to maybe even damage
small electric motors. But PCs are so resilient as to make 'dirty'
power from 'computer grade' UPSes irrelevant.

The UPS is for data protection. Unexpected power loss is not a
destructive surge and does not harm properly constructed electronics.
Disk corruption should not occur if using XP with NTFS file system.
Again some of the 'dirtiest' electricity is computer grade UPS that
others too often will misrepresent as 'clean' power.