power surge question???

[X1Lightning]

i recently had a massive power surge go thru my house, and it fried alot of things in my house, refrigerator, microwave, washing machine, furnace, the alarm clock, and about half of the lights in my house. my imac was off at the time but it was plugged in.

I turned the imac on the next day and it seems to work ok, do you think if the surge did hit it too that the damage would be apparent right away? or could it show up some time down the road?

 

[John T]

If it was switched off at the time, there should be no reason why it should be affected.

 

[S.B.G]

Off or on, a surge can still destroy electronics if they're plugged in. I doubt all of your appliances were turned on and in operation when the surge came through.

My office was struck with lightning this summer and it blew up a few things (more like fried). But one of the PC's ran fine for about two weeks then died. When I opened it up a lot of the capacitors were blown. It took that long to manifest.

 

[X1Lightning]

most of my appliances that were fried, were off at the time of the surge, only the fridge was running , and it still runs, just everything is now at room temp... so that is kinda useless.

I backed up my really important stuff and then shut it down, and i am going to go pick up a another external drive to run time machine on just in case it fries

 

[Spike88]

If item is turned off, then NO surge would have gotten past its physical off/on switch. If the surge got past the switch (ya, super duper strike), then its switch would have been melted. But in reality, if switch is off, its internals are protected from surges as well.

If Surges are a common worry in your home (like in my home), I'd highly recommend the install of both Whole House Surge protection & Computer Backup UPS protection. If wondering, I installed Intermatic IG3240RC3 unit (re: http://www.intermatic.com/products/...ential hardwired/ig1240rc3 and ig3240rc3.aspx ) off my my home's 200A electrical panel. Yes. Installed it myself. I also have my iMac connected to APC Backup UPS. If getting Backup UPS, get one with "pure sin-wave" type. They are Mac friendly. I hear "stepping to sinewave" isn't friendly on some Mac products. Especially the new 27" iMacs).

Hope this helps....

.

 

[X1Lightning]

well it was one heck of a surge since most of my stuff was off when they got fried, but my concern with the imac is that the switch on the back is just a momentary switch, the power supply and the mobo always have power running thru them even when it is off......

 

[Osirison]

The power supply of the iMac probably has a surge protection, like most common PC PSU's nowadays.

The iMac is in a kind of standby state when powered off, there is no hard wired switch in the iMac, so even when plugged it it could be affected by power surge.

 

[talkindrum]

well it was one heck of a surge since most of my stuff was off when they got fried, but my concern with the imac is that the switch on the back is just a momentary switch, the power supply and the mobo always have power running thru them even when it is off......

i have had bad surges and i have learned when a storm is coming to unplug
everything that you care about. Seriously the current can travel down phone
lines knocking out modems, and yes even if the computer is turned off, if its
plugged in its in danger, unplug phone lines too. A power surge - Batt backup
is a good investment against most small to medium surges, but big ones like
you described here... if your home.... unplug it!! oh yea, you are right to do
the backup, if it should stop booting up, start with your power supply...
mine blew after a storm! good luck!