How I can protect TV back light diodes from computer power surge?

[Readlight]

Computer is in series with TV, monitor.
From pluging in power + pc wakes up.

 

[Shrek]

With a surge protector

 

[caroline!]

Computers don't generate power surges. If yours does I'd say that's not a computer that's a capacitor bank

Protectors work, UPS are better but the decent ones are pricey.

 

[joemama]

How would the computer generate a power surge?
Also how is the computer in series with your TV and monitor?

 

[bonehead123]

Just stick your hand/arm/leg in between your 'puter & the tv.......that will stop ALL surges, or at least re-direct them directly into your central nervous system, where they can fry your brain instead of your back light & pixels, hehehe /s

But seriously, you need to either figure out how to explain your issue better, or learn how things work before posting !

 

[Bill_Bright]

Computers don't generate power surges.

How would the computer generate a power surge?

It certainly would not be normal but a computer power supply that suddenly fails catastrophically surely could dump an excessive surge or spike "back" on to the mains circuit. But again, this would be highly unusual and not very likely because even cheap power supplies "should" prevent such catastrophic failures from creating such anomalies - ASSUMING it is not some counterfeit knock-off and it complies with all the required global safety standards imposed by the US, EU and other regulatory agencies.

I would "guess" such a failure on a legitimate PSU could only happen if the supply received some sort of serious "physical" damage/abuse - and not just a typical component failure.

Computer is in series with TV, monitor.

Ummm, no its not.

An example of a "series" setup like that would mean power from the wall goes into the computer, then out of the computer and into the TV. Then the power comes out of the TV and into the monitor. If you disconnected the power going into the TV, the monitor would receive no power.

Old timey Christmas light strings were wired in "series", where if one light failed, the whole string went out. Computers, TVs and monitors don't work that way. They receive their power through totally separate circuits, or more likely through "parallel" connections through the same wall outlet.

As seen in the "series" circuit on the left, if any one of the lightbulbs burns out or is removed, not voltage will flow and all of the lights will go out. But for the "parallel circuit on the right, if one bulb goes out, the other two lights will still receive power and stay lit.

 

[Harlow]

A standard ATX PSU pulls a very short duration high current surge, typically between 20A and 100A, from the AC mains when first connected to the wall outlet or power strip (assuming the PSU's rear panel mains switch is set to ON).

As soon as the 420V DC bulk electrolytic in the primary side of the PSU charges up, the current drops back to normal levels, depending on the load placed on it by the mobo, etc.

You can confirm this switch on current surge by reading any of the detailed PSU reviews on Tom's hardware.

I wouldn't be surprised if this near instantaneous switch on current spike causes a momentary dip or "brown out" in the mains voltage reaching the back of the computer and this might propagate back up the cord to a nearby TV.

I don't think a cheap and cheerful surge protector will be able to fill in the "hole" in the supply voltage. These strips are designed to clamp excessive voltage peaks, not dips or troughs.

An always on line true sine wave UPS would isolate the computer's mains supply from the TV, but a cheaper quasi (simulated) sine wave UPS will not switch over unless the mains supply is interrupted significantly longer than the ATX switch on current surge.

If you notice a glitch on the TV screen when power is first connected to the computer, just make sure the PC is running in standby mode (mains applied to ATX PSU but computer not necessarily running Windows yet) before you switch on the TV.

I would not expect a computer's PSU to affect a TV, apart from the initial high current surge when AC mains is first applied to the PSU's printed circuit board.

 

[Shrek]

I had a fan that when turned on would cause the computer monitor to flash; I moved it to another bank on the tripp-lite (the banks are noise isolated from each other) to solve the problem.

 

[Totally]

Computer is in series with TV, monitor.
From pluging in power + pc wakes up.

Can't be in series, it's in parallel. If it were series there would be a single +V conductor from the Vsource to the TV and from the TV to comp, and a -V conductor to the Vsource. What you are experiencing is not a surge but a drop in current as Voltage is constant in a parallel circuit, so an inductor would be needed ahead of the TV.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I don't think a cheap and cheerful surge protector will be able to fill in the "hole" in the supply voltage.

No surge and spike protector can compensate or protect from abnormal "low voltage" events. That's one of the biggest advantages to using a "good" UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) instead of a surge and spike protector. Certainly, a quality surge and spike is better than nothing, but really, they are little more than fancy and expensive extension cords.

A "good" UPS with AVR can easily deal with and compensate (regulate) for the vast majority of dips (opposite of spikes), sags (opposite of surges) and brownouts (long duration sags) - without even kicking over to battery backup - which means (before the pundits pounce with their same old tired arguments ) the resulting waveform is still a nice, clean sinewave). When such events are excessive the batteries be used to "boost" the voltage back up, as needed - still without kicking over to battery backup. And note, none of that is about a total power outage. Backup power during a full outage is just the icing on the cake - and typically is only needed for a handful of minutes throughout the "year!"

It should be noted that in many cases after a sag, there is a resulting surge, then a less severe sag followed by a less severe surge and so on until it settles down and levels out - a line regulation device (either stand alone or as found in the AVR feature of a good UPS) mitigates those swings during power anomaly events.

 

[freeagent]

I have been using one of these for eons now:

Monster Power® HDP 1800 Power line conditioner and surge suppressor at Crutchfield

Looks like they aren't sold anymore

 

[caroline!]

wouldn't be surprised if this near instantaneous switch on current spike causes a momentary dip or "brown out" in the mains voltage reaching the back of the computer and this might propagate back up the cord to a nearby TV.

Ye. Plugging in the PSU directly to the wall causes lights to flicker, same when cold booting the PC. But the same happens when plugging the monitor in, or the printer, big caps tend to do that, and it's noticeable when the lights aren't of electronic nature (those tend to have their own circuitry that copes with flickering like that). But the UPS is there to prevent that, and other anomalies in my mains.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I have a friend who has that same Monster line conditioner on his home theater system and he really likes it. His house was built in 1945 and still uses some of the original "aluminum" wiring . There was still a copper shortage from WWII.

Before he bought the conditioner, even though his wiring was properly grounded to Earth ground, he would experience constant "noise" in his audio and in the video when playing a movie from his old VCR tape collection. After adding the conditioner, no noise at all.

However, we still live in Tornado Alley so full power outages during severe weather are not uncommon. A good UPS with AVR would deal with that, but simply shutting down before a storm hits works just fine with him.

For the record, I have had some bad experiences with Monster products - specifically their cables (not their electronics). We have seen several (enough to indicate a trend or pattern) of very poor quality construction - particularly when it comes to solder connections. There have been several cases of cold solder joints, blobs of excess solder in the connection, and "birdcaging". These are defects that could have easily been avoided in the first place with proper training and soldering techniques. But perhaps more importantly, they could have easily been detected with even the most rudimentary "quality assurance" inspections before the cables left the assembly area.

So, especially considering their [outrageous!] prices, I recommend avoiding Monster when looking for cables.

 

[freeagent]

I have a friend who has that same Monster line conditioner on his home theater system and he really likes it. His house was built in 1945 and still uses some of the original "aluminum" wiring . There was still a copper shortage from WWII.

Before he bought the conditioner, even though his wiring was properly grounded to Earth ground, he would experience constant "noise" in his audio and in the video when playing a movie from his old VCR tape collection. After adding the conditioner, no noise at all.

However, we still live in Tornado Alley so full power outages during severe weather are not uncommon. A good UPS with AVR would deal with that, but simply shutting down before a storm hits works just fine with him.

For the record, I have had some bad experiences with Monster products - specifically their cables (not their electronics). We have seen several (enough to indicate a trend or pattern) of very poor quality construction - particularly when it comes to solder connections. There have been several cases of cold solder joints, blobs of excess solder in the connection, and "birdcaging". These are defects that could have easily been avoided in the first place with proper training and soldering techniques. But perhaps more importantly, they could have easily been detected with even the most rudimentary "quality assurance" inspections before the cables left the assembly area.

So, especially considering their [outrageous!] prices, I recommend avoiding Monster when looking for cables.

Their cables at one time were good, but fame and fortune has a funny way of changing you sometimes

I quit using their cables in the late 90s and switched to M.I.T.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Their cables at one time were good, but fame and fortune has a funny way of changing you sometimes

Yeah. Especially in high tech industries, a company can afford to live on their laurels for about a day. Any longer than that and they will be eating dust for years to come. Intel learned that lesson when it took over a decade catch up after they watched, slack-jawed as AMD zipped on by. If they didn't have such deep pockets, they never would have survived.