Are you concerned about potential power losses in your setup?
Are you concerned about potential power losses in your setup?
We experienced multiple power interruptions recently (lights flickering several times) while my laptop was connected. It relies on two power cords and also uses an external monitor. Now, both laptop cords are protected by a surge protector, but the monitor isn't. I'm worried about possible electrical damage from these rapid power drops that might have reached my laptop through the HDMI connection to the unprotected monitor. I know it's not very likely, but I feel uneasy about it.
I would connect every device linked to your laptop, including the laptop itself up to a surge protector.
It might seem unlikely, but I have a strong feeling something could have occurred.
There have been times when insufficient grounding led to issues via HDMI/DP/display cables. You're justified in being worried.
This is caused by a device called a recloser which disconnects on overload and quickly reconnects. If there is a dead short such as from a squirrel or branch, the repeated automatic zapping burns it away and no manual resetting would be required, such as with a circuit breaker. So it's a way for the power company to avoid having to roll a truck.
As you'd expect, surges can be induced depending on how large the short was and what phase (where in the sinewave) the power is at when it is abruptly disconnected and reconnected. Even relays and switches at 12v DC such as in your car often have quenching diodes to dampen voltage spikes for this reason. The ignition system in your gasoline car, whether switched with breaker-points or transistors, actually relies on this to generate high-voltage spikes from only 12v DC.
All interconnected devices should be plugged into the same outlet because ground voltage can float, particularly when you have a surge suppressor directly shunting voltage into it. If ground voltages are imbalanced, current will flow in-between devices over odd things like the shielding in your HDMI cable which can be really bad because nothing is designed for that.
When you express concern about something, do you mean it in terms of making future adjustments or in terms of immediate damage? My main worry centers on my files; although I don’t notice obvious problems right now, there are thousands of them, and I can’t definitively confirm their integrity with the current setup.
I do. Unfortunately, I was in the process of backing my drive up when this all happened. My external was plugged in at the time. I also keep stuff on the cloud.
That doesn't answer the question though, which is whether or not I need to be concerned about my main drive. So far, the response seems to indicate that this is a genuine issue I should be worried about, but even with my tendency to overthink things like this, I am having a hard time believing that any damage to my PCs data could arise from mere power outage surges traveling through both my monitor and my HDMI cable to reach the laptop. Maybe if there was like a direct lightning strike that could be feasible, but I get the feeling that many people don't even have their PCs plugged into surge protectors, and would probably not give a second thought to outages/flickering/brownouts/whatever it was.
I mean, the monitor itself doesn't even seem to have any issues from the outages.
It's kind of surprising to see this, but I found it really intriguing after reading about it. Thanks for sharing! You're correct to be worried, but it seems more about adapting your approach going forward rather than something negative already happening. I wouldn't expect a power surge to easily harm a drive just by passing through the shielding of a video cable—unless the surge was extremely strong, which would likely affect other devices too, like a monitor. The kind of issues you'd notice would be clear signs of electrical damage or malfunction.
Your point is valid; not many people plug their PCs into surge protectors, which is something I only considered after a nearby lightning strike damaged several electronics in my workplace, even though they had advanced protection systems. Once I've experienced that, I'm more cautious—plugging devices in and out carefully, especially when thunderstorms are nearby or if I'm not around.