Do I really need a UPS?

[George K]

My APC UPS just went offline, taking the computer down with it, making a horrible screeching noise of an alarm. I unplugged everything from it, unplugged it from the wall, and power-cycled it.

Looking at the error code F02, it says it's an "on-battery output short" and the manual recommends doing what I did.

But...I've also read that this is a recurring problem with APC units, and considering that mine is more than a few years old, I'm wondering if I really need this.

There's really nothing mission-critical that I need a power supply for a few minutes so I can safely shut everything down. Everything is backed up (to at least 3 places, including the cloud).

Would a nice big power strip do the job for me? It would be a lot cheaper than replacing the UPS.

[Improviso]

@George-K said in Do I really need a UPS?:

"on-battery output short"

Woah... wonder if that could cause a fire if you weren't here?

[mark]

I stopped using APC years ago. I use CyberPower UPSes now.

I would not go without one.

[George K]

@mark said in Do I really need a UPS?:

I stopped using APC years ago. I use CyberPower UPSes now.

I would not go without one.

I can see why you would need one for your work. But me?

[mark]

A power outage during a critical system write can play havoc on your system.

Risk vs. Reward. Your call.

[Doctor Phibes]

We lost two motherboards on two separate PC's, most likely during thunderstorms, and the tech recommended getting a UPS. We haven't had any problems since.

[George K]

@mark said in Do I really need a UPS?:

A power outage during a critical system write can play havoc on your system.

Risk vs. Reward. Your call.

Yeah, I know. The worst thing that can happen is that it crashes the hard drive and makes it unbootable, right?

I can restore it in about 3 hours. I get it that professionals can't afford that kind of downtime. I can.

[mark]

Well you just talked yourself out of getting one.

I didn't do that.

[Doctor Phibes]

When I say 'lost motherboard', the PC was completely unusable. The HDD wasn't damaged, but it fried something on the main board.

[George K]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Do I really need a UPS?:

When I say 'lost motherboard', the PC was completely unusable. The HDD wasn't damaged, but it fried something on the main board.

Wouldn't a surge protector accomplish the same thing?

[Jolly]

If it's just a battery issue, what does the battery cost?

[George K]

@Jolly said in Do I really need a UPS?:

If it's just a battery issue, what does the battery cost?

About $80. But, I'm not 100% sure it's that. Like I said, it's an old unit (>8 years).

[Axtremus]

You don't necessarily need a UPS, but wouldn't be a bad idea to at least have a surge protector. Another step up is a voltage regulator and something that smooths out "noisy" power sources. Surge protection aside, I am not familiar with consumer electronics that offer those two other functions independently, but good UPS units typically have all those built in.

I have a setup where I have a laser printer hooked up to the same circuit as a desktop/server computer along with a UPS. Every time I "wake" the laser printer up, it draws enough power that it would trigger the UPS. In that case, the UPS protects my desktop/server from the transient power irregularities caused by the laser printer waking up, and avoid a needless restart for the desktop/server machine. (And yes, @mark , I use CyberPower units for the more important stuff; though I still have older/smaller APC units in service as well.)

[Jolly]

A small UPS is not that expensive. All you need is surge protection and just a few minutes run time.

I think it's cheap insurance.

[mark]

You need power conditioning and very good ($$$) power conditioning to prevent that. Lightning is very hard to stop and very expensive. Most good UPS have better power conditioning than a typical "surge protector". A surge usually occurs when something in the power chain unexpectedly puts excessive load on the power supply.

[Mik]

I've never had a UPS and never had a problem. But we also have latop computers used in different areas of the house. Just good quality surge suppressors. If I were going to invest in something on that order I'd likely go for a whole house generator.

[Klaus]

Very few companies and even fewer private persons need a UPS.

Today's servers and file systems in general cope well with sudden power losses. If one has valuable data, a backup is more than sufficient for almost all situations.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in Do I really need a UPS?:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Do I really need a UPS?:

When I say 'lost motherboard', the PC was completely unusable. The HDD wasn't damaged, but it fried something on the main board.

Wouldn't a surge protector accomplish the same thing?

We had surge protectors on both PC's, based on that theory. I wasn't convinced they'd done what they were supposed to do. It's possible it wasn't a surge, but I figure for the sake of $100, what the heck.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results

(We use Cyberpower UPS's)

[jon-nyc]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Do I really need a UPS?:

When I say 'lost motherboard', the PC was completely unusable. The HDD wasn't damaged, but it fried something on the main board.

Buy a Mac, bitch.

[Doctor Phibes]

@jon-nyc said in Do I really need a UPS?:

@Doctor-Phibes said in Do I really need a UPS?:

When I say 'lost motherboard', the PC was completely unusable. The HDD wasn't damaged, but it fried something on the main board.

Buy a Mac, bitch.

That's like telling somebody who was raped by a priest to join the scientologists.