RSlinx\power surges

I seem to have a problem with power surges corrupting files and creating problems with data collection for XLR reporter. I have had this problem twice at my work station and have had to do fresh re-installs of RSlinx to fix it. Now our main plant has the same problem after a thunder storm. We have both computers on battery back ups that are supposed to have surge protection built in (powerware5115). I need some advice on what would be a better option. There is no problem with the panelview 1000's that are connected just the desktops.
Any help and directions would be greatly appreciated!

I honestly don't know if this will even work, but hey maybe it will.
When I picked up my 42" Toshiba projection tv I also picked up this really cool noise reducing power supply.
Now this is a consumer level item. I bet there's something comparable in the industrial sector.
for a surge suppressor the dang thing cost like $90.00 (wow!). It didn't even have battery backup.
Something like that, coupled with your battery backup might do the trick.
Though is your ups running software on your pc? Some ups have a usb cable that connects to the pc and comes with software to automatically shut down the pc in case power is lost.
Might look into that...

You didn't mention what kind of computers you were using, but my first inclination is to go with Russ (on one point)... Get better power supplies for the computers. The 'Stock' ones really aren't that good, and much higher quality ones can be had from almost any online-computer supplier for relatively little money.

If you do change power supplies out, make sure you get one that is rated for higher power than the stock one. I'd go at least 400 or 450 watts. The stock supplies are barely adequate to power up the system as shipped. Toss in some extra cards, or a different video adapter, or an extra CD-R/W, and you are probably overtaxing the stock supply.

I do not agree with Russ on using the UPS USB/Serial Shutdown line. Especially in plants. That will cause all kinds of pain in the butt shutdowns from line noise, low/high lines, phases of the moon, and whatever. Again, UPS's aren't a panacea, and typically don't fully condition the line (even full-time on line ones). They can still allow spikes and drops to bleed through, but if the computer supply is decent, it will ride through.

I would suggest putting a constant voltage transformer ahead of the UPS/Computer though. CVT's generate a lot of heat, yes, but are about the best power conditioning you can buy, and they also decouple the downstream equipment from the line via a transformer.

Good luck.

We are using Dell GX400's running w2k and the ups has 1400va/950 watts the same as on our pumpcontrol valve cabinets. It will run the computer for at least 30 minutes that i know for sure but seldom do they have to be capable of this because we have a backup genset to run the plant during power outages. I dont know exactly what happens but when we get a surge the comm event log gets full of error messages stating that there is no buffer space availible and the active topic list pops up with status errors? We also have not installed or hooked up the ups other than just for power. I have found to some extent that scan times also effect RSlinx.
I will have to look into cvt's but management is slow to move on anything. My biggest problem with the main plant is that they decided to use that computer for emails and it is also networked in with city hall,and various weather programs.Try talking to a brick and see how far you get!
Thank you for the replies.

/soapbox on

Operations level computer hooked up to a public network? and used for emails? Is there at least a heavy duty hardware/software gateway box in between? Run regular, up-to-date virus, spyware, ad-bot scans? Disable all public shares? Use NT-Authority system for logins? Disable CD-ROM and Floppy access (and most programs) from user level access?

/soapbox off

If you can take the time, and have a spare machine to put in place of one of them there, take one box offline, get Sandra system diagnostics (www.sisoftware.net), and run it through the burn-in tests for system board and memory. Let it go for at least a day, maybe two. See if it reports any errors.

It still sounds like the power-supply is dropping or glitching; maybe not enough to force a system shutdown or reboot, but enough to corrupt some memory.

Again, a UPS does not cure power problems, and in many cases can actually CAUSE them. Desktop (and even some much larger multi-server level UPS's) are highly sensitive to not only power dips (brownouts) and failures (blackouts), but are incredibly annoyed by frequency variations in the incoming line. Noise appears to them as a frequency variation. I've seen UPS systems blinking and beeping back and forth from LINE to UPS, even on nice sunny days when the rest of the plant power seems good. Heck, here we have an enterprise UPS powering up all the electronics outlets in the buildings. Works great, but if I cascade another UPS into one of those outlets, the second one complains.

There is very little hold-time in Dell Desktop-level PC Powersupplies (Hold time being the time the supply will keep proper voltage during a dropout/brownout). In most applications here, we use Dell Servers, with redundant power supplies. Not because we want to protect against a supply failure, but because the supplies are much better in quality, and by having two, the hold time is much greater. Very important when your CPU and Memory can spike at well over 35 Amps.

'Surge Suppressors' are a good investment, but only really protect against high-energy spikes, and degrade over time. MOV's are not self-healing devices, the more energy they absorb, the less their capacity is, until they finally just fail.

In your case, I would first suggest getting an after-market power supply, take a look at some from www.antec-inc.com .

Computer hardware now-a-days is an awful lot like all consumer electronics; PC's (even name brands) are made with they absolute minimum spec'ed components, and the number one area for cost-cutting are power supplies.

Good Luck GHO

rdrast my soapbox is in splinters with all my somping up and down. My superintendant just doesn't get it and every time that i can bring the system back from the dead he forgets every thing. Ihave to hold on until january when he will be getting a new computer and i get the old one back to do what it was originally intended to do.
Thanks for the advice!