[SOLVED] Power Outages / Surge

[Sekiro]

I'm not too sure if this is the correct section, or If this has been answered before, sorry if it has but I have a question.

So my motherboard the Asus Rog strix z390 e-gaming has build in RBGs, I notice it remains lighting even after shutting down, yesterday it had a power outage in the area and while it had no issues booting up or warning to turn on normally ect, I was wondering if this can cause an issue to the hardware, or if a power surge could as the board is evidently running some sort of power through it even if it's low power, I'm investing in a UPS soon but should I remove the plug after shutting Down or is that unnecessary?

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you commonly have brown outs, surges or lightning strikes in your area, anything that might be a problem, then shutting down is NEVER adequate protection against those. Anytime your power supply is still connected to the socket it is at risk from voltage issues whether it's powered on or off. If you are concerned, then I'd first make sure to disable Hibernation (Which also disables hybrid sleep/fast startup) so that when you shut down the system ACTUALLY is shutting down and not hibernating, as follows.

To disable Hibernation:

1. The first step is to run the command prompt as administrator. In Windows 10, you can do this by right clicking on the start menu and clicking "Command Prompt (Admin)"
2. Type in "powercfg.exe /h off" without the quotes and press enter. If you typed it in correctly, the cursor will simply start at a new line asking for new input
3. Now just exit out of command prompt

And then AFTER you shut down, either unplug the unit from the wall or flip the power switch on the back of the PSU to the off position. Unplugging is the better option if you really think you have power grid or serious surge issues, because even when the unit is flipped to the off position it is STILL connected to the grid and could be overwhelmed by a serious surge or direct strike to a node near your home.

A UPS will not protect you from any of this. While UPS systems and some very high quality surge protectors do offer SOME protection against rogue voltage, a UPS is primarily designed to offer protection against a LOSS of power, not against an unexpected surge or strike. And power strips with "surge protection" are MOSTLY useless unless you have a high quality unit made by companies like Tripp Lite, Eaton, Leviton or another of the industrial quality brands. The MOVs found in most cheap power strip surge protectors are only really capable of offering protection against very minimal surges that come after a limited brown out. They are mostly worthless in terms of actual protection.