Tools: Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and surge suppressors

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Yesterday, with a loud concussion that shook the windows, a  
transformer appears to have blown near our house. (I'm not morally  
convinced it was a transformer, since power was restored in about an  
hour, which seems too fast.) In any event, some kind of voltage surge  
passed through the house, judging by the flash of brightness from the  
lights before they went dark.

But all our computers survived because they were hooked into APC UPS  
units. (Most of the other valuable electronics is only plugged into  
garden-variety surge suppressors, since we don't need to keep it  
operating until we can shut it down.) Thus, I can now pass on some  
advice from personal experience: if you don't have a UPS for your  
computer, buy one. They're cheap insurance.

I also discovered an interesting problem that required a solution  
that might be of interest to someone. I'm working on a laptop, with  
the main screen being an external monitor. When the power died, all  
the windows, menus, and other controls were displayed on the external  
monitor, which wasn't plugged into the UPS battery backup because  
I've prioritized other equipment for battery backup. The laptop  
stayed live, but I couldn't see or get at any of those windows and  
menus, even when I turned off the external monitor. That was a  
problem because I wanted to save several open documents I'd just  
recently modified in a handful of open programs.

The solution was obvious once I figured out what was going on: put  
the laptop to sleep, unplug the monitor's video cable from the  
laptop, and wake the laptop. Voila! Instant menus and windows, and  
all was well again. Apparently, some laptops can tell that the video  
cable is physically attached, and if you've specified that external  
monitor as your primary monitor, they won't automatically transfer  
the display to the laptop screen until they're convinced the external  
monitor no longer exists.


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
Coming soon:  _Effective onscreen editing_ (http://www.geoff-hart.com/ 
home/onscreen-book.htm)

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