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Power outage leaving you in the dark? Have a tired mouse? Read on...

UPS. UPS in this context does not mean United Parcel Service, it means Uninterruptible Power Supply. This is a battery that sits between the wall socket and your computer. If there is a power outage or brownout, the UPS instantly kicks in and keeps your system from crashing.

Depending on the size (and cost) of the UPS, it can keep your system running for a few minutes or for several hours. A large hospital will have huge (and expensive) UPS's that will keep their computers up for as long as it takes to fire up their backup power generators! This is something that I would appreciate if I were having open-heart surgery at the moment of a blackout, but it is probably beyond the budget of the small business owner or home PC user.

For those of us on a budget, a small UPS may be the best insurance policy we could buy. A small UPS will keep your system running for 5-10 minutes. The purpose is not for you to keep working (as it would in the hospital scenario,) the purpose is to give you enough time to save your work and perform an orderly shutdown. It could save you a fortune in lost data. Another benefit of a UPS is that some of them (the good ones) act as a super surge protector. At least one on the market is warranted to stop a direct lightning strike! It will self-destruct in the process, but it will stop the surge from hitting your PC. That's a lot of protection for about $100.

A wise old computer guru once told me that the value of a PC is not in the cost of the hardware, the value of a PC is in the data that you store on it. You can always write a check for new hardware, but what will it cost you if you lose your data? Could it be replaced for ANY amount of money? If you depend on a PC for your livelihood, a UPS can be the single best hardware investment you can make.

This sounds really silly -- clean your mouse ball rollers. Shut off your computer and flip over your mouse -- most open by twisting the ring around the ball. Scrape the gunk off from the rollers and wipe everything down with a alcohol-soaked cotton swab. Replace your mouse mat when it starts getting worn or dirty too. You'll be amazed at the difference.

Power outage leaving you in the dark? Have a tired mouse? Read on...

General Computer Tips

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