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Seems that lately I've heard a few folks that have had problems with power on their PMac G5s (and subsequently logic board or CPU problems), and there was talk that being connected through a battery UPS might be implicated as a contributing cause.
Anyone able to confirm this? I've got a UPS on my G5, and I'm wondering if it might be a potential problem. Can a UPS cause damage?
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I suppose as much as any power source that you connect to your computer, yes it might be able to. But I wonder, (not really knowing the details of how these things work) since the batteries inside only store the amount of electricity (110v) that go into them, how could they alter that figure into something that could damage the computer? I mean all the UPS does it store energy, and the computer will use that energy as it becomes necessary.
I can't confirm it either way, but it seems unlikely.
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There was some press, a little bit of it, over at XLR8YOURMAC.com last week about some G5 owners having issues with their UPS's. Don't remember if any of them claimed that they suffered damage from the UPS's.
OTOH, I wouldn't run a G5 *without* a UPS. I just bought a new Belkin 1500VA UPS for my new Dual Core 2.3 Ghz G5. It has 8 battery and surge protected outlets! No joke. I was going to invest in an APC RS1500VA, but for less $$$, and more protection and outlets, the Belkin was just too good to pass up.
I got it at this place (lowest price on the 'Net):
http://www.thenerds.net/index.php?page=productpage&affid=2&pn=F6C1500TWRK
I don't like the Belkin shutdown software as much as I like APC's, but the unit is stellar.
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They don't store 110V, they charge a 12 to 24 volt battery, which is then turned into an AC squarewave, if the DC to AC converter is crap, the squarewave it produces will be crap.
Gues what, the reason low cost UPS's are cheap is because the components are cheap.
BGnR
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Don't know, but most UPS's come with some type of "insurance"???
Collecting in another matter!!!
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When the newest G5s came out there was talk of the special plug (15 or 20 AMP style), and that they might draw more power. The Quuds I have seen seem to have a normal AC plug.
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Ken Sp. Wrote:
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> When the newest G5s came out there was talk of the
> special plug (15 or 20 AMP style), and that they
> might draw more power. The Quuds I have seen seem
> to have a normal AC plug.
Look at the end that plugs into the G5, not the wall end, they are different.
BGnR
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I can confirm that my new Dual Core has a "different" plug in socket, where the cord plugs into the computer. All of the new G5s have the same new, heavy-duty plug with the "different" design. The gauge of the cord itself is also waay heavier than my last G5...I'm no electrical genius, so bear with me, but the cord is easily 30% heavier than in the previous generation of G5s.
I'm sure Apple has its reasons. The Power Supply in these new G5s is 710Watts for the 2.0 and 2.3Ghz G5s, and the Quad gets a 1000Watt unit, from what I've read. I may be wrong about those numbers, but I'll search my bookmarks file and see if I can find the link for the replacement PSupply for my G5...I looked it up one day last week and it was 710Watts.
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Found this on XLR8yourmac re: random shutdowns:
NOTE: IF you have this problem and are using an UPS, test with the G5 not plugged directly into an outlet (not the UPS). Although most didn't mention using an UPS, an insufficently rated UPS has caused problems for several G5 owners. For those with the problem, also check the system's logs to see if there's any useful info - one reader mentioned thermal runaway errors in the log. Reset pwr mgr suggestions were also mentioned (shut down, disconnect AC power cord for a few minutes) but not sure that would really help depending on the root cause of this.
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That was it..."random shutdowns" of G5s. And some of the nice people were saying that their UPS's were under rated for the application. That's why I got a new UPS for this new Dual Core G5...because of the heavy duty 700Watt+ Power Supply. If your G5 is operating at *full load* and the Power Supply is putting out all 700+ Watts and an outage happens, or a voltage fluctuation, you'll have a problem.
The Belkin UPS that I have is rated at 830Watts peak power output, and 1500VA, plus 1000 Joules surge protection and AVR (Automatic Voltage Regulation). I wouldn't have this machine online with anything less than this UPS.
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