CompUSA is closing all of its Michigan locations so I decided to take a look and see what I might be able to talk myself into buying that I couldn't live without. I'd wanted a UPS for my system for a couple of years and kept telling myself that I would use my tax refund to buy one. It's an insurance item, though, so that little voice in my head kept saying that Visa needed the money (or rather that I needed Visa to have my money) more than I needed something that I really didn't need yet...
I walked out of the store with a UPS (and a copy of Make magazine that I'd always wanted to peruse).
I decided that tonight was the night to hook things up and get them protected as there's a nasty storm coming through in a couple of hours. Nothing like waiting for the last minute, eh?
I started just trying to find a place to put the darn thing. It's not nearly as big as they used to be, but it isn't gonna sit on the table top either. Once I decided where I wanted it, I tried to start hooking up all the cords that snake around the armoire that we house our computer in. Of course there's the computer and the monitor power that need to be protected by UPS, but there are a lot of other devices that I can live without during a short power outage. The UPS has coverage for that (4 surge only protected and 4 battery and surge protected outlets). You only want to use the battery slots for the essentials so that it lasts longer so I tried to keep it to a minimum - the CPU, Monitor and router power. Everything else I ran from the surge protected only side. As I was trying to do this, though, I kept getting confused and tangled in all of the wires.
In all, for my entire setup, I have 11 AC cords, 6 USB cables, the keyboard, the speaker, the headset, the monitor cable, 3telephone cords (1 DSL, 1 telco to the UPS and 1 from UPS to modem), a network cable, and probably a few that I can't remember (or see) right now.
I finally got so frustrated that I had to wake my wife up (who had taken Nyquil mind you), to come help. That's how bad things had gotten.
About 45 minutes (and a trip to Walmart for a 4 port hub) later, I'm back on line... Hopefully everything else still works too!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Oh, what a tangled web we weave
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1 comment:
Hahaha. I feel your pain James. I bought a UPS a few months back after figuring out after 4 power supplies in 3 years that we have power issues in our house. I needed something to regulate the power so I don't get any of these strange effects. It was a pain hooking everything up since I have 5 computers sitting under my desk. Too many damn cables under my desk.
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