Both Dotti's and my computers are protected by Tripp-Lite 1000VA battery backup / surge protectors.

When I got up on Monday, 5/11/09, I went to turn on the TV and found that the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) was frozen. I guessed that there had been a power spike or momentary interruption during the night. I rebooted it and all was well.

After breakfast I went down to my office and my computer wasn’t working at all. After an hour of troubleshooting I figured out that the Antec power supply and MSI motherboard were “fried.” One of the reasons that I assemble my own computer systems from “generic” parts is so that when something breaks, I can replace just that component and be back at work within a day. Since no computer part of mine costs over $200 and most are under $100, this works well.

My computer was 2 ½ years old,  so I didn’t want to replace the parts with what I had originally purchased. As a result I ended up getting a bigger power supply, more modern motherboard and a quad-processor CPU set rather than slower dual-processor one I used to have. Originally the salesman sold me a CPU chip that was incompatible with the new motherboard. This screw-up cost me half a day extra. I was up and running Tuesday afternoon. 

On Thursday, I realized if the was a power spike, then the protection circuit in the Tripp-Lite Battery backup had not worked or was fried by the spike. I packed up the unit and took it back to Costco. They refunded my money without question and I purchased a new unit. The new box says that I have $200,000 insurance if the unit fails. I am in the process of filing a claim with Tripp-Lite. I’ll update this post when the issue is resolved. I UPS'ed the old PS and motherboard back to them the end of May so that they could test that it had been zapped by a power splike. They assured me that if either was still good they'd send them back to me. As of Aug. 10th I haven't hurt back from them. I guess I'll have to start bugging them.

To prevent such issues, Aging Safely keeps the system running our web sites and SQL databases in a data center in another state. They have conditioned power, generators, redundant internet connections, backup hardware, and a 24x7 staff to resolve such issues even more quickly that I did.

Current Status:

8/30/09 --- I sent my power supply and motherboard back to Tripp-Lite so that they could determine if it was a power spike that killed them. This was in early July, by UPS. They have had them for over a month and haven't said a word. They have not sent them back as promissed.  Last week I started calling them and always got voice mail from the claims departments. None of the calls were returned.

9/17/09 --- I finally hear from Tripp-Lite and they claim that since the power surge components of the power supply weren't fried that my power supply and motherboard dieing during a quick (< 1 sec) power outage that thier $200,000 guarentee doesn't apply. Good luck to any otherswho thry to use this "insurance."