Harleyman, Txnetcop...anyone..help

[hews500d]

Ok now this is weird.. I unplugged my new rig Wednesday night when the storms were going thru to keep it from getting zapped by any lightning and when I plugged the power cord back in the lights on my Saitek X52pro and Track IR came on. I powered the computer up and shut down, everything was fine, no lights, nada. Later in wee hours of the morning we had a power failure for a few minutes, when the power came back I noticed a green glow coming from the other room, they were on again..I had to power up and shut down again to get them to go off.

I thought it may be a BIOS setting wrong and checked it out last night. Everything looks correct, it's set to remain in an "off" state upon power failure rather than to "power on" or revert to the "last state" when the power is restored.

Any ideas? For some reason the USB ports are powering up automatically. The ASUS forum hasn't been any help in searching there.

Darrell
Asus P6T motherboard
Core i7 920 processor
Corsair 850w power supply

[harleyman]

Hmmm....It would appear that if things are powering up as you say without your input then its something in the bios mabe causing it..Some sort od miscommunicating from there...Why??? No clue..

This is just with your USB devices??????


You might want to try and reflash your chipset drivers again......That may reset it all back correctly.....

[harleyman]

Then again you may be able to remove the jumper battery for five minutes and then install it again..That will DEFAULT your BIOS back where it was and reset it...\


For the future...Use this...I have one on every computer and never leave home without it...LOL


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7383976&st=UPS+backups&type=product&id=1122654248983


Then you never have to worry again about storms or Spikes and brownouts

[Francois]

I had something similar just last week. Thought of a power surge at first, but I have protectors in between. I also plugged in a new USB device (a record player in this case) and apparently that screwed up the BIOS/USB drivers.

Taking the battery out was the only remedy in the end. Everything is back in working order now.

[hews500d]

Hmm, I'll try the battery removal this evening and see if that helps. That UPS looks like the way to go Harleyman, I'll have to check into it. After having 2 tv's, 1 vcr, 1 stereo zapped over the years from electrical storms I'm kinda supersticious about not unplugging everything LOL

Darrell

[GT182]

Who ya gonna call????? Ghost Busters! ;)

I've had that happen only once, and after rebooting it's never happened again. Remember to shut off the PSU switch in the back before you unplug anything from yer 'puter. Plug it all back in then turn on the PSU.

[hews500d]

Who ya gonna call????? Ghost Busters! ;)

I've had that happen only once, and after rebooting it's never happened again. Remember to shut off the PSU switch in the back before you unplug anything from yer 'puter. Plug it all back in then turn on the PSU.


Oops, that's one thing I didn't do (shut off the switch on the PSU) not call ghostbusters LOL!!!

Darrell

[vstudios]

Hi Harleyman,

I had a browse around the site you posted a link for, the feedback is great, one thing that was a little worrying though and thats a comment regarding the battery life, someone commented that its life span is only 14 months, just though I'll let you know. However, if it protects your valuable machine I guess it would be a small price to pay. Thanks for the heads-up

[harleyman]

Thanks for that....I have actually a different one from Best Buy and posted a link for that here too..I will go get it and see if they still carry it..that battery is susposed to last 3 years I think......


Anytime you unhook your puter its a good idea to turn off the switch at the PSU , then hold the puters power down for 10 seconds to disappeat any stored power in the capisitors....



Here is the one I have two of and swear by it......
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8022935&st=battery+backups&type=product&id=1157067061643

[harleyman]

Also.... I have my whole house surge protected by the utility company....It covers all electrical..Phones....Satellite...Modems.....It costs 10 bucks a month and install was free...Might want to look into that too...

[srgalahad]

After my first posting to the Arctic with a computer I learned the joys of a UPS... brown/blackouts are a way of life with diesel-generator municipal power. Now all four of my systems have a UPS. There IS a difference though and after a couple of 'cheapies' I stick to the APC systems.
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR800BLK&total_watts=200

Because it's contantly 'on cycle' the battery is not eternal but most APC ones have a replaceable battery (just recycle the old one as they recommend) so you don't have to buy a new box.
One nice part of the better ones is the Auto-shutdown software (connects via USB or CAT-5) and does a save & shutdown when the power is off for a pre-determined time.

Other than data loss, the real worry is not the power drop but the spike that often accompanies the return(s) of power and good UPS's have a high limit / short transient surge suppressor that's better than most (even the good ones) power-bar/surge suppressor -- and (read the fine print) a system warranty for damages. A good UPS will have pass-through surge suppression for CAT-5, telephone and cable connections as well.

Hints: plug ONLY the system, cable modem/router and monitor into the 'backup' side of the UPS (and a LED desk light) to conserve battery power. If it looks like a lengthy power loss, save, shut down and turn off the UPS. It will still suppress surges when off. Printers, etc such eat a lot of power and who needs to print in a power failure?
On my AMD3500 & LCD monitor I get about 20 minutes of runtime -lots to get in, and safely close everything. Last year after a severe wind storm I was able to use the laptop alternating internal battery and the UPS online for 4 hours.

Oh, a small transistor radio can be plugged to find out how many days you'll be in the dark.

Still, if we go away for a few days I shut down everything and pull the plug on the UPS - still getting the surge suppression on the cable and phone lines.

Rob

[mike_cyul]

Thanks for that....I have actually a different one from Best Buy and posted a link for that here too..I will go get it and see if they still carry it..that battery is susposed to last 3 years I think......
Here is the one I have two of and swear by it......
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8022935&st=battery+backups&type=product&id=1157067061643

I use two of them, and they have saved my work several times during power interruptions, which we get from time to time in winter. During longer power failures we can also plug in a radio to find out what's going on, turn on a light, etc..

The only small annoyance is that they beep loudly every few seconds when the battery is supplying power - so if the power goes off during the night, you have to get up to check things out.

Mike

[harleyman]

On mine there are ways to kill the beeping after it warns you...Or can be set up somehow to never beep if you want it...I've never had to use mine(or had it used for power off deals) ...


I have not looked into doing it yet ,but it does some how...

Mine shows that I have 19 minutes run time on it...I just run my modem,puter,monitor off it and a wireless router......


I bought mine mostly for brownouts that we get lots of here in the country......

They now have the PowerChute for 64 bit avaible after 7 months ...I got the beta one as they sent it to me ..i pestered them to no end while they were making it...LOl The one they had offered was only Vista 32 bit,and the websight did not state that...I learned it from their forums..Their tecks did not even seem to know that as they always tried to give me the 32 bit ones...LOL


but all is good and I rest it once a week to be sure......Nice to have...