What are the dangers (hardware/software) when computers forcefully shuts off due to black outs & sudden electrical supply cuts?

My notebook has been forcefully shut down 4x due to frequent black outs. I removed the battery and directly used AC power to run my notebook. I am now worried of the adverse damages of sudden electrical cuts to my notebook. Will encounter hardware/software malfunctions or any other problems in the future? I guess I should just always plug my battery for safety measures. But, I really use my notebook as a desktop pc so what now can be the best solution? Is there a osftware or hardware I can buy or download to help me remedy such problems during sudden electrical supply cuts

 

there is hardware you can buy.

I forgot the name right now, but basically it's an external surge protector with a battery.

It protects from power surges and also power cuts.

I wouldn't worry about power cuts causing damage (but you will lose data).
But power surges could cause damage.

EDIT: It's called a UPS (uninterruptible power supply).

 

You should probably take the battery out of storage and insert it back into the laptop if you experience power outage that often. Oh no, there are no laptop batteries in my fridge. Event viewer logs pretty much everything. Take a look: WindowsKey+R and type eventvwr.

 

Um, you bought a laptop... why did you take out the battery? A laptop battery basically acts as a built in UPS. Just leave it in.

 

Just put the battery back into the laptop and leave it there. It will lose a little lifetime, but since you're using the machine as a desktop, it doesn't really matter.

A power outage shouldn't cause any damage other than the loss of unsaved data, but hard drives aren't fond of it. The drive has to very quickly park the head and they usually have a small capacitor enabling this, but it's not something I would like to test often.

 

The risk of hardware damage is minute. I have never had an UPS, and leave desktop on all the time and not once has anything happened in the dozens (maybe hundred or more) of blackouts my hardware has experienced over time.

 

I never had one either, I couldn't even remember what to call it

Although we get a blackout maybe once every two years where I live so it's not a big problem for me.

If you live in a place with frequent blackouts I would consider a UPS though.

 

I wouldn't know about 95% of our power outages if I didn't come home to clocks set to the wrong time or my computer on when I left it off. I have no clue where these come from but the ones I notice are the ones during real bad thunderstorms.

 

So power cuts don't really do that damage to HDs?

 

It depends, I hear it might do a little if the hard disk is writing or when you are installing updates.

If you are really worried about the battery I would try to find the smallest batter (4 cell even) used and just leave it in there.

 

Vista is pretty capable of restoring itself after a sudden shutdown no matter what is being written to the drive. Not saying it's perfect though. XP not so much. Windows 98 and below you were guaranteed to need to reinstall the OS from scratch.

 

The "best" solution is an uninterrupted power supply (USP)! Save that, you can do as already suggested and put the battery back in.

Not unless it can lobby your power company to upgrade it's aging electrical infrastructure. It's old; and failing in many parts of the country.

 

No, the best solution is put the battery back in, not get a UPS. Sheesh.

 

No, the "best" solution is as I stated! Yours is the simplest solution.

 

a) it's not good
b) avoid it as far as your resources allow

 

Yours is a more expensive, needlessly complicated solution. Taking the battery out of a laptop is an antiquated practice for all practical purposes, just like using a screen saver to try to prevent burn in for your screen. A UPS uses a battery. Guess what happens when you run that battery down? You have to replace it. So now, you've managed to spend 30-250 bucks on a UPS in order to extend the life of your ~$50 laptop battery by what, 5%? 10%? And now you are stuck having to buy a more expensive UPS battery when that burns out instead. Yours is only the best solution for a neurotic who can't see the forest for the trees.

 

woh woh woh, take it easy guys. No need for insults and sarcasms

 

What is the difference between a UPS and a battery? I am not yet clarified...

Thanks in advance

 

So... I'm a little confused right now. Some people say that it's not dangerous with these shut downs and some people say it can cause damage to your computer. What's the truth?

 

You can do it but it is not good for your computer, that is why id has the shut off function.

When you do a hard shutdown it is right in the name, it does cause more ware and you dont want to do it all the time.

 

LOL there such a thing as the UPS battery is rechargable... nowadays all UPS batteries are rechargeable... and don't insult ppl ... being such an idiot urself and not knowing such a fact..

 

A UPS basically is a battery. The difference is your laptop battery sits in a slot on your laptop, connected directly to your laptop (obviously) while a UPS battery sits in what amounts to an enormous surge protector power strip on the floor. In essence, either way, you are plugging your laptop on to a battery, the question really becomes do you want to spend more money on an external battery device to potentially slightly reduce the cycle count and heat stress on your lappy batt or just pop in the battery your laptop conveniently came with out of the box and not spend extra money and hassle. Just to reiterate, they are both batteries.

 

Reading comprehension fail... I never said a UPS battery isn't rechargeable any more than I said a laptop battery isn't rechargeable. However, the argument being made by the opposition is that using the laptop battery, effectively as a UPS, runs down the lifespan of the laptop battery. My point is that the equally rechargeable UPS battery runs in to the same cycle count and heat stress issues as the laptop battery, and will eventually need replacement just like the laptop battery for just the same reasons. I actually own a UPS for my desktop, I know it is rechargeable, otherwise it would be a pretty silly device. I would just never use my UPS to buttress my laptop against power failure when the laptop has a battery in it as well.

 

Nothing. A UPS is just another type of battery. It is useful for various devices (usually in industrial settings, but some people have one for their desktops) that you don't want to shut down quickly in the event of power failure. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone using one for laptops because a standard laptop battery serves as an excellent UPS and it's not rational to buy another UPS just to avoid slightly wearing down the one you already have.

It can cause damage to your computer, but is unlikely to do so. Hard drives should be able to handle it, but it's not recommended to try your luck. The more likely way it can cause you trouble is if Windows was installing an update and the machine shut down in the middle of the installation. I think Microsoft tries to account for this scenario, but it doesn't always work. Likewise, if you're installing a program, a power cut might cause it not only to fail to install (that's a certainty), but also screw up the system so that it thinks it's already installed (and thus won't let you install it again).

In summary, it is unlikely to be dangerous, but you should avoid it if you can.

 

If you have that much power instability at your home/apt, then just put the battery back into the laptop.

 

Alright. I was thinking about the same thing. Sure it may be dangerous for your computer but in most cases it wont. Sounds reasonable enough for me. Thanks.

 

The other part, as previously mentioned, of a power failure that is dangerous to your electronics is the power surge that often comes when the power comes back on. That's why even though a UPS is silly to have for a laptop, putting your laptop on a surge protector is a very good idea.

 

I don't believe that. Where is the "surge" coming from? About 5 1/2 years ago I was typing up a paper late at night during a thunderstorm and my motherboard fried. The power went out for a few seconds, but when it came back on the computer didn't start. Luckily I had a spare motherboard and nothing else was fried but I'm sure that was from a lightning strike. I have never used a UPS or surge protector and that was the only thing that has ever happened. Something else similar happened, but that was a little more than 9 years ago. I was on a computer with windows 98 and accidentally hit the wrong power switch to cut power to the printer and windows 98 had to be reinstalled. I also never turn off the computers in the house unless I'm going away for a week and we have always had at least 2 plugged in. Our house, though near a suburban city, is really out of the way and is in a woodsy rural area and we have plenty of power problems. I was going to buy a UPS about 6 years ago but realized I didn't need one and it would run out and the computer would shut off anyway since I leave the computers on all the time and most outages happen when I'm not home or busy doing something else.

 

I had to replace the battery in the UPS(APC Back-UPS 650) on my desktop a while ago. Those thing are expensive as hell where I used to live. And IMO since the OP is using a laptop getting an UPS is a waste of money as they cost hundreds of $ and perform the job that the battery would do.

@OP:

Just get that battery out of storage and put it back in your laptop, and get a good surge protection for the plug the laptop is pluggeg to. This is the best solution imho.

Ha! I can't wait to see you talking like that when an idiot at the substation control station sends twice the voltage he should have at your house and all your sensitive electric devices(computers, whole hi-fi setup, HT+TV ) fry. You shouldn't be talking with that sense of false security when means of protection are fairly cheap.

 

It's not really that bad at all unless your installing a program/updates.

 

-now I'm clarified Thanks.
-But I have another concern, why is that a computer technician I once consulted told me that I should detach my notebook's batt if I will be using my notebook for a long period of time. He also said that an old and probably beyond its cycle count laptop batt can cause damage to the laptop's hardware. Is this true? Need clarification please. Thanks

 

Trottle, you are guilty of a flaw in your logic. I never said that you ALWAYS get a spike or surge when the power comes back on, only that it is something that is known to occur with relative frequency. Just because "there was this one time when the power came on and there was no surge" doesn't mean it never happens. By all means though, live with that assumption. I will laugh dutifully when your hardware fries the first time you get unlucky.

Comrade, I'm not sure on your questions, but my guess is that the tech was talking about a battery wearing out more quickly when plugged in then when not. Which it does. But not to a degree which is worth worrying about. As you see in this and other threads on this board, some people are obsessed (as I would bet your tech was) with maximizing the life of thier lappy batt, and will go to insane lengths to do so. I would just avoid the hassle myself though, and take the small degree of extra stress on the batt in order to allow myself the convenience of having that battery there when I need it and having one less silly little thing to worry about.

 

Just put the battery on the machine.

Blackouts cause damage to the hard drive on the long term, sometimes you will not be able to access the drive, and some data loss is possible.

 

This is a good idea under most circumstances because you will keep your battery's lifetime longer this way and it is not doing much while in the laptop. However, it is a bad idea if you've had 4 black outs -- the battery is useful so use it.

I don't see how this is possible. It can't just be a matter of being old, something would have to have shorted inside the battery. This is incredibly unlikely.

 

As others have said, a UPS would be an expensive redundancy to something that you already have with your current battery.

Laptop batteries are expensive, but no moreso than a UPS. If you want backup for other PC accessories like a monitor, external hard drive, etc it isn't a bad idea.

That being said, you are much better off just using your battery for your laptop. Newer laptop batteries, by newer I mean in the last three or four years, are so much better than they used to be. Batteries will lose capacity over time regardless, it's the nature of the beast. But newer batteries tend to keep 95% of their initial charge capacity beyond their first year, if not longer.

I had a Gateway P-7811fx that I rarely used over the course of a year, and it was left plugged in most of the time. I then had it sitting in a closet for over a month unplugged before I sold it, and when I plugged it in, it was at 99% charge. Didn't lose much of anything.

Bottom line: you bought a laptop for the convenience of it, make use of the conveniences. Your battery will serve you well for over two years, and probably more, regardless of how you use it, so best to just save yourself the concern and hassle and just use it.

 

Just shutting down you computer is an unhealthy act. Computers really shouldn't be turned off... Unless, of course, when you're going on vacation!!

 

Not really, if it's turned off properly. Just don't cut the power. PC's of 15 or more years ago you had to park the hard drive head manually with a DOS command like "PARK". These days everything is so automated you don't really have to think about it except to to click "Start, Shut down". Power up does incur a slight power surge, but PC's are designed to manage it.

 

-is this 100% true????

 

No. Millions of people turn their computers on and off all the time with no ill effects.

 

Computers are designed to be left on these days, but it's for convenience more than because it is dangerous to shut them off.

 

Some people have mentioned purchasing a ups. When I worked at a cinema we had one for every projector (they were digital projectors running "red hat" on dell servers). Basically it was a giant battery plugged into the wall that you then plugged your computer into. If power was lost depending on the size of the ups you could continue to power the computer for 30mins-2hrs. They recharged once power was restored but a decent one cost around $80 and imho is not worth it for personal use.

I also take the battery out of my laptop because after a year of leaving the battery in my sony laptop and using AC power 90% of the time if I now remove ac power the battery lasts about 20-30mins instead of the 3hrs it did when it was new. My Gateway battery still lasts 2-2.5hrs depending on usage just like when it was new because I very rarely use it.

I will warn you that during a power outage my computer was installing a service pack for vista, not in windows but it was either right after shut-down or before it booted to the desktop, and I lost power and had no choice but to reformat windows. Not a big deal but it can happen, if the power goes out while it just sitting idle I'm almost certain nothing would happen except data unsaved and only on the ram would be lost.

 

It's because of effective sleep and hibernate modes that PC's are typically left on. A lot quicker to get back to work and get you back to where you were than a reboot and reloading all your apps.

 

Would you recommend to leave your computer idle or turned rather than shutting it down if you plan to use it like after 4-5 hours? Is that suggestion only good if you're using a desktop or also even a notebook? What about the electric consumption of leaving the computer (notebook or desktop) idle? Is it more expensive, in terms of electric consumption, to leave the computer idle if you plan to use it after 4-5 hours or turn it off?

 

I keep mine on sleep or hibernate all day and if I install something or get some updates I restart. It is plugged in all night and with me all day, normally I go thought the whole battery.