Xbox 360 surge protector?

[Saturos]

Is that what that little long gray box/power cord that plugs in to the wall is? I have a 360 my cousin let me borrow for several months and was wondering if I should plug it into a separate surge protector?

 

[VirusType2]

I'm not familiar with the 360, but the plug with a box must be the power supply.

yes, you should plug it into a surge suppressor if you want to protect it.

I live in an old house and i use more than one surge suppressor (in a chain) and a battery backup. I hear the ****ing thing clicking and tripping several times a week, usually related to when the air conditioner kicks in or something, but it has battery so it doesn't shut anything down.


Just a warning -
Watch out for those battery backups though, they don't handle a lot of watts. I have only my PC plugged into mine which is rated 450 watts. No monitor or anything. My computer is actually 500 watts, but it's ok.

During the winter last year my old battery backup caught fire (really just melted and smoking and broke) because I had like 2,500 watts going through it and it was rated like 400. Was using an 1300 Watt electric space heater, a monitor, and a PC. Read the rating on the back first.

 

[Barney Fife]

God Virus! You hooked your space heater on a UPS? Don't you know space heaters will short circuit the entire house if anything else uses the same outlet they're hooked on? Or an outlet with the same circuitry for that matter? Or using a power-cord extensions with space heater sets your house on fire? And space heaters draw so much power; if they're left on for quite a while, they, themselves will catch on fire?
Space heaters are time bombs; they'll destroy sooner or later. You must keep your eye on it, and better have a functioning smoke detector nearby, in case it goes bad while you're asleep, and never leave it on while you're away.

Back to the topic: You can buy a surge suppressor basically from anywhere with safety fuse and a third ground tooth, 3-10yrs lifespan (Usually you can find that info on the packaging). Do not use the same outlet the console or the surge protector uses with another component, specially high powered components like a hair dryer or a SPACE HEATER!!! without a surge protector. And you're still not 100% safe, why? its always the way the circuitry in the houses are designed, overloading a circuitry will always short-circuit, surge and spike. You're in this room on your console, your little sister is in the other room blow-drying, both outlets use the same circuit and its storming outside, got the picture?

Good Luck.

 

[VirusType2]

yeah my house is old. I've got 2 outlets and you don't want to know how much shit I have plugged into them.

After the fiery incident, I've been real conscious about using things simultaneously. For example, if I want to watch my TV, I'll turn off other things, like my PC monitor and some of the lights. Also got some 10 watt fluorescent bulbs instead of those old school light bulbs that use 100 watts each.

Back in the day I'd crank up my 200 watt stereo to full volume, playing songs off my PC while vacuuming the carpet with all the lights on, and stuff like that. lol.

 

[Saturos]

I'm not familiar with the 360, but the plug with a box must be the power supply.

Now that you mention it, I do remember the whole controversy about Microsoft's decision to make the 360's power supply external. Thanks for helping me remember!

yes, you should plug it into a surge suppressor if you want to protect it.

^ditto

I live in an old house and i use more than one surge suppressor (in a chain) and a battery backup. I hear the ****ing thing clicking and tripping several times a week, usually related to when the air conditioner kicks in or something, but it has battery so it doesn't shut anything down.

I thought it was bad to connect more than one surge suppressor/battery backup together at a time?

Just a warning -
Watch out for those battery backups though, they don't handle a lot of watts. I have only my PC plugged into mine which is rated 450 watts. No monitor or anything. My computer is actually 500 watts, but it's ok.

When you say battery backups, do you mean a UPS? I use one of those for my PC too. Saved my ass from blackouts on several occassions. It's rated at 2200 watts, and yes they don't last very long if the primary power goes out. Just enough time to shut everything down and turn off the PC properly. A UPS is a well worthy investment though for this reason.

During the winter last year my old battery backup caught fire (really just melted and smoking and broke) because I had like 2,500 watts going through it and it was rated like 400. Was using an 1300 Watt electric space heater, a monitor, and a PC. Read the rating on the back first.

Wow. Guess we all learn from our stupid mistakes right?

 

[VirusType2]

I thought it was bad to connect more than one surge suppressor/battery backup together at a time?

well, I don't use all the outlets, like some crazy shit you see on the movies with 15 things plugged into the Christmas tree

I'm not using any more power tahn any of you guys out there. Just a computer and a stereo amplifier that I rarely turn up real loud.

When you say battery backups, do you mean a UPS?

yeah.

It's rated at 2200 watts, and yes they don't last very long if the primary power goes out. Just enough time to shut everything down and turn off the PC properly.

what kind do you have that can sustain 2200 watts? brand/model/price?

Mine only does about 500 watts, but it has a 90 minute run-time, which is really overkill, since I tend to just shut it down if the power is out.

 

[Saturos]

Mine only does about 500 watts, but it has a 90 minute run-time, which is really overkill, since I tend to just shut it down if the power is out.

Oops, I fibbed. I was just guessing really. (too lazy to check) :angel:

It's really a 600W Ultra 1000AP unit. My PC, monitor, and modem doesn't use nowhere near over 600W though, but that explains why the power drains so fast during a blackout.

Still, it gives me enough time to shut down properly. I'd hate having to run chkdsk after every stupid blackout.

My UPS came with software to monitor load levels, so I've become kinda negligent with checking every piece of hardware's wattage I plug into the device.

 

[VirusType2]

Hmm, I'm afraid I'll cook my new UPS, so I don't have anything but my PC plugged in - no monitor. Thsi means I have to wait for the power to come back on to see what I'm doing. I don't know. I would plug in the monitor temporarily if I had to, but I don't want it as a constant drain. Power very rarely goes out for more than a few minutes.

I've never run chkdsk in my life. Is it important? be serious, no hyperbole

 

[Saturos]

I've never run chkdsk in my life. Is it important? be serious, no hyperbole

Well, supposedly if you PC crashes suddenly, or you have a blackout with no UPS installed, or you accidentally hit that power key, it's really a good idea to run chkdsk because data could have become misplaced (as in physically on the HD, not within the OS) due to Windows not shutting down properly. This can in theory, lead to more crashes and instability due to any bad sectors that may have resulted from said misplaced data. I've never intentionally not run chkdsk though after said incident to test this for myself, but being how I like having the most stable system possible, I do so anyways.

The only downside to running chkdsk though, is that it takes my system nearly two hours to complete.

 

[VirusType2]

The only downside to running chkdsk though, is that it takes my system nearly two hours to complete.

yeah. I've got something like 1.5 or 2 terrabytes too. Not sure how much hard drive you have but.. yeah.

Maybe I should at least run it on the Windows drive. My computer has been having this one glitch for months were - every so often (about once a day) windows explorer will crash, and I use task manager to kill it and restart it. really ghetto.

 

[Saturos]

yeah. I've got something like 1.5 or 2 terrabytes too.

Why the f**k do you need to have so much space for? Porn? :O


My HD is only a modest 160GB, and I've only got this one Windows XP partition. It's all I need though.

 

[VirusType2]

I've got a server

 

[Saturos]

I've got a server

Neat. Well, what could you possibly be serving to others over the internet with a machine like this then?

 

[VirusType2]

I'm not serving over the internet

I've just got the same things you probably have, but I guess I have a LOT more of it. I'm probably 10 years older than you, so I've probably got way more CD's and movies and stuff that I've collected over the years.

I back up all my DVD's. (over 100 of them) As you know, 1 modern DVD is almost 8GB, so I have to compress them. I thought I had a lot of space until I started putting movies on my HDD.


My thing is, I don't want to ever uninstall things that I will use one day, even old ass games are still installed.

I don't want to go searching through 15 CD cases for a music CD so I can hear this one song. I put them on my HDD, then I can shuffle them

etc.

 

[No Limit]

I live in an old house and i use more than one surge suppressor (in a chain)

In a chain as in a daisy chain where each one is hooked up to the other? Dude.

You sound like you are really playing with fire (literally) the way you have your electrical hook ups done. When you daisy chain surge protectors the way you have done you are overloading the entire circuit if you have enough devices plugged in to it. Don't do that. If you need an extension cord then go out and get an extension cord, they aren't that expensive. you say you have 2TB of data. It would royaly suck to lose all of it in a house fire, along with all your other belongings evne if you have insurance.

Watch out for those battery backups though, they don't handle a lot of watts. I have only my PC plugged into mine which is rated 450 watts. No monitor or anything. My computer is actually 500 watts, but it's ok.

Your power supply might be 500 watts but that doesn't mean your computer ever actually draws that much. To give you an idea I have 2 servers hooked up to a 430W UPS and I am only using about 60% of the load. The only time that spikes is when the server is doing something really demanding, and it never gets above 80%.

So you should be safe hooking your monitor up to it (if you have an LCD they dont draw that much power) so this way you will at least be able to save your work and shut down properly if there is a power failure.

 

[Fliko]

If it hasn't been said, the Xbox 360's external power brick should be its power supply that converts the wall signal into a level it can use.

Almost all power bars you buy these days have surge protectors built into them, so if you use one of those, you're good to go.

Aye, Xbox 360 has a built-in surge protector. Infact Microsoft suggests you don't plug it into a surge protector, they always tell you to make sure your console isn't plugged into a surge protector or power bar of some sort when you report a RROD to their customer support.

 

[Saturos]

Aye, Xbox 360 has a built-in surge protector. Infact Microsoft suggests you don't plug it into a surge protector, they always tell you to make sure your console isn't plugged into a surge protector or power bar of some sort when you report a RROD to their customer support.

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys.

 

[99.vikram]

The only downside to running chkdsk though, is that it takes my system nearly two hours to complete.

If you installed your OS on a 1TB HDD, you fail spectacularly.

 

[Saturos]

If you installed your OS on a 1TB HDD, you fail spectacularly.

That would be Mr. Virus and his server. Or are you insisting that it would be dumb to install a single OS on a 1TB drive in the first place? I'm assuming you mean the latter though, and I concur.

Back to the topic: You can buy a surge suppressor basically from anywhere with safety fuse and a third ground tooth, 3-10yrs lifespan (Usually you can find that info on the packaging). Do not use the same outlet the console or the surge protector uses with another component, specially high powered components like a hair dryer or a SPACE HEATER!!! without a surge protector. And you're still not 100% safe, why? its always the way the circuitry in the houses are designed, overloading a circuitry will always short-circuit, surge and spike. You're in this room on your console, your little sister is in the other room blow-drying, both outlets use the same circuit and its storming outside, got the picture?

So, I have a six-outlet surge protector for my TV, gamecube, and PS2 all connected, but Fliko says it's bad to plug the 360 into a separate surge protector. I have another outlet nearby that has only my UPS for my PC plugged into it. The 360's external PSU has a built-in surge suppressor. Where do I plug it in? The six-outlet 'separate' surge protector with the TV/other consoles plugged into it, or the separate outlet with only the PC's UPS plugged into it?

 

[VirusType2]

Please keep reading to fully understand before commenting.

It's fine to plug a surge suppressor into another surge suppressor. I'm not expert on the subject, but I wasn't born yesterday, and I would say that is beneficial as an added layer of protection. The problem lies when you have too many things that lead to one wall outlet


The power strips and surge suppressors have robust cords that are much safer than the dangerous skinny little Dollar store extension cords that aren't even grounded properly.


My house is a historical building over 150 years old, and I'm lucky to have 2 wall outlets.

From my 1st wall outlet, I have a robust suppressor (designed to handle an entire theater system) that only powers my TV that I rarely use and 2 other power strips that function as a kill switch for my DVD recorder that sometimes locks up and won't respond, and the 2nd one is just a power strip that I use to power/charge my laptop only.

What I'm saying is that just because I have 25 available outlets, I'm only using a TV, a Fan, laptop, and a DVD player, and I rarely use any of them.


At another wall outlet, I have a surge suppressor that handles my monitor, my printer and my stereo. Plugged into that same surge suppressor, I also have a UPS surge suppressor that covers my Computer's power supply only.

So yea, I have chains of suppressors, but I'm still just powering a computer system and a stereo amplifier from 1 wall outlet.

These two wall outlets are on separate grids. I've had power go out on only one of them, so I'm sure of it.


Here is all the information you need on the subject:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=surge+suppressor+plugged+into+another+is+ok?&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Barney Fife]

So, I have a six-outlet surge protector for my TV, gamecube, and PS2 all connected, but Fliko says it's bad to plug the 360 into a separate surge protector. I have another outlet nearby that has only my UPS for my PC plugged into it. The 360's external PSU has a built-in surge suppressor. Where do I plug it in? The six-outlet 'separate' surge protector with the TV/other consoles plugged into it, or the separate outlet with only the PC's UPS plugged into it?

Connecting an additional suppressor on a component which has its own suppressor is more like an overkill and paranoia, but won't harm any.
You can use all the outlets on any suppressor (With the respect of the specifications) and it won't overload, but, never use a power-splitter on the suppressor and connect more stuff on it; that will overload the suppressor.
If you must, and there isn't any other outlet available or nearby, then use the available outlet on the suppressor, which you're already using for the Gamecube and the TV for the Xbox.
I don't actually have any console and I'm exclusively PC type sort of half-man, so I'm sorry, I don't know whether Xbox comes with built-in surge suppressor. I guess I'll have to take the man who said it does' word for it.
Most newer houses, or newer Power-meters do have some sort of built-in surge suppressors to maintain the quality of the incoming current, also all PSUs do have built-in current regulators (Though better than one another), which works like, pouring all power into a pool like area, clean it then supply it to components; because your system components are really sensitive to current.
So little or no surge will ever pass through, unless, you're incredibly unlucky, or there is serious brownout going on, or you're having a major storm and lightning is constantly striking your perimeter, then you'll have worry for your life.
What goes on in the house is actually more dangerous to your equipment than what's coming from outside, most of the time. For example: A household space-heater draws power equivalent to all the devices you mentioned, hooked on the same surge suppressor, combined:
Hook a garden hose to your water-tab and turn the tab on, now you have a clean flow of water, if you connect a bigger hose on same water-tab and turn it on at the same time, the smaller hose will start to have less pressure, meaning the bigger hose took most of the pressure. If you suddenly shut the bigger hose off, you will have the entire pressure directed to the smaller hose causing irregular pressure (Surge). Same thing happens to all currents, after all; electric flows just like water.

Good Luck.