• Computers
  • Power outage while DAW was running. No UPS. Let's discuss implications of such events. (p.2)
2015/07/07 09:04:01
Jim Roseberry
Be careful with electrical "outages".
Had one years back (power company came out to do a temporary repair).
That electrical issue took out a new range and business phone system.
New house in a new neighborhood... lots of construction (so it's not always older places)
Called the power company... and they took absolutely zero responsibility.
 
If you have an outage while recording:
You'll likely lose the track you were recording.
Wav files already written to HD will still be on the HD.
If you hadn't saved the project, the (already written) wav files will still be on the HD... but won't be referenced in the project.  In this case, you'd need to import the wav files and manually line them up.
Save often!  Ctrl + S is easy to grab.
 
Obviously a UPS is safest.
Make sure you have an up-to-date backup image file.
If you know there's going to be a major electrical storm, unplug your studio gear.
 
Most likely to be damaged is the power-supply.
 
 
2015/07/07 10:14:45
TerraSin
We get power outages here all the time. Never any issue with lost work other than what I might have been currently recording (most everything is midi though so not much of an issue since I have it setup to save every few changes anyway). Never any hardware failures from it either. It's just something that happens. Make sure you have a solid surge protector and you'll be fine in that aspect. I recommend APC for the consumer grade.
2015/07/07 15:15:02
bitflipper
Without a UPS, the biggest danger for your DAW is corrupt files, but usually only if you were actively recording at the time of the outage. The second-biggest danger is damage to your power supply. A distant third-most-likely is damage to motherboard, RAM and disk drives.
 
Simply losing power abruptly will not necessarily cause any of these bad things to occur. More likely, it's the surge that happens when the power comes back on that does the damage. So one simple measure you can practice is to quickly shut everything off and then wait a few minutes after the power returns before booting back up.
 
A small UPS is a very good investment. You can get a decent one for ~$200. It only needs to keep you running for a minute or so, long enough to complete disk writes so your audio files aren't corrupted if you were recording when the power went out. But you also need one with adequate capacity to power your video monitors (hard to shut down with no video) as well as your audio monitors (mainly to protect from surges that could damage them).
 
I have everything running through a UPS, and have done so for decades. If I lose power only the lights go out, and maybe a space heater if it's winter. Audio interface, synthesizers, speakers and computer stay on. Only for about 20 minutes, but that's all I need to avoid disaster.
 
UPSs usually include some kind of "power conditioning" too. I put that in quotes because there is no formal definition for what that phrase actually means, so vendors can stick in a 50-cent choke and a 10-cent varistor and call that "conditioned power". Taking out line noise isn't as important as surge suppression. ('Cause you've already got all your audio on a separate dedicated circuit, right? And all the ground wires are connected, and not daisy-chained?). A good surge suppressor is what will keep your power supply and motherboard from getting toasted, so make sure it's got a real suppressor that won't itself get blown up the first time lightning strikes nearby.
 
Another caveat for those of you who are smugly self-assured because you already have a UPS: they wear out. It's a good idea to test them once in a while by pulling the power plug and timing how long they continue to power your gear. You might be shocked that the battery that lasted 30 minutes when new now gives you 30 seconds.
 
(In a previous life, I was trained as a power-quality consultant for large computer rooms. It was seriously boring sh*t and involved crawling under floors and stuff, so after a year of it I went back to software development.)
 
2015/07/07 15:29:51
batsbrew
the one i posted only costs $74
2015/07/07 17:32:56
Beepster
Awesome thread as always, guys. Lots of stuff I could say/ask but I'm just gonna absorb the wisdom for now.
 
Thanks.
2015/07/08 14:00:30
Beagle
Excellent post Dave.  I would only like to add my pedantic two cents about my pet peeve...
 
Today's consumer UPS systems are NOT actually UPS systems.  that's a misnomer! 
 
UPS is an acronym which stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply.  If you look at the specs of any consumer grade UPS, they always mention "switching time" in msecs.
 
there is no switching time needed if the UPS is a true Uninterrupted source.  a true UPS system runs everything off of a battery and the interruption to the power source will not affect the system its protecting at all.  today's consumer UPS's have a battery that they SWITCH to when the AC power is interrupted, NOT running off of the battery all the time as is in a true UPS.
2015/07/08 17:37:48
slartabartfast
Beagle
Excellent post Dave.  I would only like to add my pedantic two cents about my pet peeve...
 
Today's consumer UPS systems are NOT actually UPS systems.  that's a misnomer! 
 
UPS is an acronym which stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply.  If you look at the specs of any consumer grade UPS, they always mention "switching time" in msecs.
 
there is no switching time needed if the UPS is a true Uninterrupted source.  a true UPS system runs everything off of a battery and the interruption to the power source will not affect the system its protecting at all.  today's consumer UPS's have a battery that they SWITCH to when the AC power is interrupted, NOT running off of the battery all the time as is in a true UPS.


 Probably true. On the other hand, I have never had an issue with a consumer UPS keeping my computers running, and I get dozens of power outages annually due to a rural above ground distribution system. I have never had a UPS that will reliably run a computer for more than ten minutes ($30-50 and usually cheaper than buying a new battery)  and have never lost data. When you are not going to be at your computer, save everything, and shut it down. If you are sitting at your computer when the lights go out, save everything and shut it down. Do not put your space heater on the UPS.
2015/07/08 21:30:24
Doktor Avalanche
Beagle
Excellent post Dave.  I would only like to add my pedantic two cents about my pet peeve...
 
Today's consumer UPS systems are NOT actually UPS systems.  that's a misnomer! 
 
UPS is an acronym which stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply.  If you look at the specs of any consumer grade UPS, they always mention "switching time" in msecs.
 
there is no switching time needed if the UPS is a true Uninterrupted source.  a true UPS system runs everything off of a battery and the interruption to the power source will not affect the system its protecting at all.  today's consumer UPS's have a battery that they SWITCH to when the AC power is interrupted, NOT running off of the battery all the time as is in a true UPS.


I've only used UPS's for servers for businesses and they can be quite expensive. The battery has to be replaced every so often as well..

So this is news to me, learned something... So basically consumer UPS's turn PC's into laptops power wise! Cheers

Edit ... OK it's the opposite..
2015/07/09 07:16:07
synkrotron
Hi Beep,
 
Sorry to hear of your PC troubles...
 
dcumpian
Either that or move to a laptop



Yeah, a laptop has a few disadvantages, at least for larger studios, but I've managed on my lonesome for a couple of years with my laptop now and not having to worry about accidentally turning off my pc at the wall (easily done) is great. Unless I need to record 16 audio sources at once I don't think I'll ever go back to a desk top workstation...
 
 
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