The Importance of Power Protection

Brownouts, Voltage Spikes, Frequency Shifts, and even Using the Wrong Adapter Can Damage Your Computer

All electrical power is not created equal, nor is it delivered perfectly every time.

Power, as it comes off the grid into your home or business, is not always spot on. Sometimes, overuse of the local system results in lower voltages at electrical outlets. Spikes are even more common. They end up on the line as the grid deals with events - like a car hitting a utility pole, or a large motor or circuit breaker at an industrial facility going into action.

Even the utility frequency (set at 60hz in the U.S.) can vary when the grid is too heavily or too lightly loaded.

None of these events are likely to damage your toaster, but they do have potential to harm your PC.

Power fluctuations can directly damage motherboards and CPUs, corrupt registry data, or destroy hard drives. They can also be silent killers, not stressing your electronics hard enough to cause a computer stroke, but over time degrading the lifecycle of your machines.

When it comes down to it, even using the wrong power cord for a laptop can be a bad idea.

The experts at Shiloh Service know exactly what power precautions you should take to get the most life-time value out of your computers, network, and other electronics.

They can audit your current setup and recommend power filters, UPS battery backups, professional surge protectors, and more. Call us today at 1-888-374-4564, or visit our Contact Us page online.

UPS Battery Backups Save the Day!

All the threats to your computer and network are not high-tech vulnerabilities with fancy names, like viruses and malware.

A simple power failure can cause data loss, or worse, corrupt the registry and keep your computer from booting, ever again.

No doubt you’ve seen the warnings on your screen from time to time - the ones telling you not to shut down before an update completes or a scan is finished.

They are serious!

Cutting power to any desktop or server without performing a proper shutdown can often prove catastrophic.

Even the most dutiful users can still fall victim to circumstances out of their hands. Power outages do and will happen. That’s why it’s important that your desktops and server be protected by Uninterruptable Power Sources.

UPS systems are more than big batteries. A good UPS provides excellent surge protection, power regulation, and can even shut your computer down safely in the event a power failure happens overnight while your system is still running. By providing power filtering and voltage regulation, your UPS extends the life of your computer, freeing it from the stresses of the “dirty power” your local utility may provide.

At Shiloh Service, we provide free consultations, evaluating your PCs and network setup to make sure your IT infrastructure is safe from the inevitable power failures that will happen, but should never cost you money in computer repairs!

Do You Know if Your Computers Use Solid State Drives?

An SSD, or Solid-State Drive is a new type of hard drive that has been gaining widespread popularity and usage. That computer you purchased last year may be storing all your information on an SSD.

While its purpose is identical to a traditional Hard Disk Drive, the device itself is very different from a traditional mechanical HDD. An SSD has no moving parts. Instead of writing the data on spinning disks, an SSD is comprised entirely of non-volatile flash memory chips – about the same as you would find in a USB flash drive.

While currently a more expensive option, the price of SSDs has been decreasing dramatically in the past few years, currently running the consumer an average of 24 cents per gigabyte as of 2017. Compare that to 3 cents per gigabyte for traditional storage.

Despite being a tad more costly than mechanical disks, the numerous advantages of solid state drives sees them appearing with growing frequency in homes and offices.

The big advantage is that computers using SSDs boot far faster and deliver data much more quickly. They’re a joy to use.

While touted as faster, more robust, and longer-lasting than a traditional mechanical disk, recent studies such as one performed by The University of Ohio suggest that SSDs could possibly be significantly vulnerable to sudden power-loss.

Results of their testing of fifteen SSDs and two HDDs yielded surprising results. The table below displays some of their findings, showing that every single SSD tested suffered at least one type of failure as a result of power-loss.

Now you have even more reason to be concerned about power loss in your business or home, as the newer computers featuring SSDs, are even more vulnerable to power loss and power fluctuation.

Data loss can be devastating, especially if the data is integral to your business. In the event of sudden loss of power, even if your equipment remains unharmed, unsaved documents and projects can still be suddenly lost forever.

Contact Shiloh today for a free consultation and to learn how we can help your business take advantage of the power and convenience of computers with solid-state drives without suffering any of the downsides, like data corruption when the power flickers!

Shiloh Service Area

Shiloh Service, Inc. provides computer solutions, including network support, computer sales, and computer repair services in the Pittsburgh region.

Call us at 1-888-374-4564 or contact us today to review your IT systems; we can help arrange your technologies in ways that boost efficiency, minimize risk of downtime, and ensure maximum security.

At Shiloh Service, it’s our job to help your business succeed!

Our service area includes but is not limited to: Pittsburgh, Monroeville, McKeesport, Greensburg, Jeannette, Irwin, North Huntingdon, Latrobe, Murrysville, Ligonier, and more.

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