Page 26 - News On 7 Feb 2022

TECH TALK

We are at that time of year when power outages have become more frequent and depending where you live you will have
constant brown outs. Most in the industry call this dirty power. While some will never have issues with this, others will.
Computers and other electronics plugged in during one of these events can lead to damage to these devices. Sometime with a
computer it may be the power supply that has been damaged. In other situations, the main board or motherboard can be
damaged. Surges in power puts a higher amount of voltage on a system that cannot support it therefore damaging the
circuitry. This affects everything plugged in during one of these events.

So how do we get around having one of these events damage our electronics.
Surge protectors can help with power outages and the spike associated with the power when the power comes back on.
However, there are many different types of surge protectors, cheaper brand will fail to protect your devices on subsequent
surges, more expensive brands will protect your devices in this instance. Do your research here. Brown outs on the other
hand are in a whole other category. A brown out event the power does not always go out, the power fluctuates up and down
during this. This in the industry is called dirty power. In order to protect your devices, you need to have a surge bar with a
power conditioner built into it. This evens out the highs and lows in voltages during one of these events. This is one subject
that can lead to many more questions, if your power starts to fluctuate immediately shut down your computers and unplug all
electronic devices. This is still better than nothing and with any luck you, save your devices.

That’s Tech Talk for another month. Have any questions please feel free to contact me @ Dr. Jim’s Computer Repair on
Facebook or at our Belleville location at 392 Front St. in downtown Belleville.
Until next time.
Dr. Jim