Do surge protectors actually work to prevent any damage?

[benjiven]

I while ago I was troubleshooting some stuttering that was affecting my system. It turned out to be my Evga g2 after installing a Evga white that worked fine. A few weeks before that I had some sort of power surge, flickering lights, monitor dimming and a large electric noise coming from the back of the PC.

 

I recently installed a surge protector and just today the same thing happened again, flickers lights, but my monitor and PC aren't affected.

 

How effective are Surge protectors against damage?

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, benjiven said:

How effective are Surge protectors against damage?

Very, but only against voltage-spikes. Like the name quite literally says, it doesn't protect against under-voltage or anything like that.

[Gix7Fifty]

Yes, and what is the joule rating of your surge protector? BTW they do wear out.

[benjiven]

2 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Very, but only against voltage-spikes. Like the name quite literally says, it doesn't protect against under-voltage or anything like that.

Would flickering light be a sign of over voltaging? Do you think any damage could have occurred again? this time my screen and PC made no noise of flickering.

[SupaKomputa]

Flicker light is undervolt.

Surge protector will stop voltage spiking, such as in a thunderstorm.

I suggest you get a Voltage Stabilizers that will protect you from both.

It's more expensive, but suitable for your condition.

[benjiven]

21 hours ago, Gix7Fifty said:

Yes, and what is the joule rating of your surge protector? BTW they do wear out.

It wasn't a cheap one and I don't have the box anymore, it is less than a year old.

 

21 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

Flicker light is undervolt.

Surge protector will stop voltage spiking, such as in a thunderstorm.

I suggest you get a Voltage Stabilizers that will protect you from both.

It's more expensive, but suitable for your condition.

Is there any way I can verify if damage was done to my computer during this, such as checking power etc in HW monitor?

[Votivee]

5 minutes ago, benjiven said:

It wasn't a cheap one and I don't have the box anymore, it is less than a year old.

I was once told by an electrical engineer that you're supposed to replace surge protectors after every electrical event that happens. Not sure if it has to be that often, but it does put it in perspective that you should replace them every couple of months if it's a frequent thing. If you are experiencing brown-outs (lights dimming) then you might want to invest in a pure sinewave UPS.

[Glenwing]

2 minutes ago, benjiven said:

Would flickering light be a sign of over voltaging? Do you think any damage could have occurred again? this time my screen and PC made no noise of flickering.

If you are getting momentary drop in brightness/light output (flickering), that is caused by a momentary drop in power. Surge protectors won't help with that, you should look into getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

I suggest you get a Voltage Stabilizers that will protect you from both.

Most UPSes have both surge-protection and powerline-filtering, plus they obviously include batteries for running stuff even if power cuts out. I'd personally recommend for the OP to just buy a UPS, since it sounds the OP has really shitty powerline-stability.

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, benjiven said:

Is there any way I can verify if damage was done to my computer during this, such as checking power etc in HW monitor?

If there was an overvoltage event, it would've caused components to just fail. So if everything is still working more or less as expected, then your components are fine.

[benjiven]

21 hours ago, Glenwing said:

If you are getting momentary drop in brightness/light output (flickering), that is caused by a momentary drop in power. Surge protectors won't help with that, you should look into getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

Is this damaging to computers? I will look into a UPS thanks

 

21 hours ago, Votivee said:

I was once told by an electrical engineer that you're supposed to replace surge protectors after every electrical event that happens. Not sure if it has to be that often, but it does put it in perspective that you should replace them every couple of months if it's a frequent thing. If you are experiencing brown-outs (lights dimming) then you might want to invest in a pure sin-wave UPS.

Will look into a UPS, thanks!

 

21 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

If there was an overvoltage event, it would've caused components to just fail. So if everything is still working more or less as expected, then your components are fine.

My Evga g2 was definitely the cause of the stuttering though, so there must have been a point where it broke and that's the only event I can think of. Maybe is just coincidental.

[SupaKomputa]

3 minutes ago, benjiven said:

Is there any way I can verify if damage was done to my computer during this, such as checking power etc in HW monitor?

 

 

If the surge reaches the PC its gonna be ugly.

Usually i get a busted USB ports, Lan Ports and Broken Audio chip from an ugly thunderstorm.

Not only the PC, the TV had a broken hdmi ports.

The surge seems to travel from the cable wires, so it attacked the TV and then the PC which connected to the cable internet.

Safest thing to do is not using the pc while in thunderstorm.

[benjiven]

5 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

If the surge reaches the PC its gonna be ugly.

Usually i get a busted USB ports, Lan Ports and Broken Audio chip from an ugly thunderstorm.

Not only the PC, the TV had a broken hdmi ports.

The surge seems to travel from the cable wires, so it attacked the TV and then the PC which connected to the cable internet.

Safest thing to do is not using the pc while in thunderstorm.

Yeah. My other PSU caused massive stuttering and uneven gpu clocks after extensive testing and the only thing I can think of is that that light flickering and PC buzzing noise that happened. Installed a cheap Evga white and the problem was completely fixed. Just worried that the same thing has happened again, this time it was in a surge protector however.

[benjiven]

Unfortunately this power issues seems to have killed my second PSU, having the stuttering issues days after a week of completely fine gameplay. Same again.

[PanteraGuk]

It you’re going to invest in a system the invest in ways to protect it. I use an older home theater surge protector that works great. It’s a bit over kill but it’s protected my rig multiple times.  I have an older monster cable hts3500. Multiple companies make them. Panamax has a good rep. Some of these have the ability to clean power, detect grounding issues and protect against over/under voyage situations.

 

 

 

[benjiven]

11 hours ago, PanteraGuk said:

It you’re going to invest in a system the invest in ways to protect it. I use an older home theater surge protector that works great. It’s a bit over kill but it’s protected my rig multiple times.  I have an older monster cable hts3500. Multiple companies make them. Panamax has a good rep. Some of these have the ability to clean power, detect grounding issues and protect against over/under voyage situations.

Is this as effective as a UPS? I'm looking for cheaper option they all seem to be around $100

[PanteraGuk]

13 minutes ago, benjiven said:

Is this as effective as a UPS? I'm looking for cheaper option they all seem to be around $100

No this is not. This was built for a home theater.