Undesirable Power Situation (UPS)
I’ve never felt the need of a UPS for nearly two years until now. 
Was gaming early at around 12:30 yesterday with Karthik and suddenly my Zebronics SMPS (400W PSU) goes *Bang*. Just like a balloon bang under a water tank, yeah that kind of a resonating noise. No sparks, no fire but it definitely blew up! Oh I did have the very irritating burning smell though.
06:00 AM - I didn’t pay much attention then as I was feeling sleepy and had college to go to but my dreams, they already started showing me the new rigs I might get if this one conked out entirely.
05:00 PM (After College) - A friend of mine, Jayahari, agreed to help see whats wrong and dissected the SMPS (He does this pretty fast for any hardware :P) and noticed some capacitors bulged and some stains on the circuit. Ok, so its definitely SMPS’s fault we thought and moved to Richie Street and got a new 500W PSU (The former was 400W).
07:30 PM - Hooked up the new SMPS and it still didn’t boot. Ok this is wrong, very wrong Then I noticed that none of the devices connected to my spike strip were functioning so I checked its fuse and it was kaput too. Damn, so it wasn’t my SMPS’s fault all the way, it was TNEB’s!
08:00 PM - Pulled out a newer spike strip from my electrical repository 
and used it to boot the PC, and it did fine. Jayahari couldn’t seem to forgive himself for not checking the power first rather than the SMPS. But he hooked the old SMPS to the main power, and it sparked out again, which made him quite content.
Now - Back online and need a new UPS to avoid another one of these *Bangs*
More:
Not one shop in Richie Street had any of the foreign brands Kalpik and others had recommended me to get. I had the budget and will to buy it while I had gone there but I just didn’t find any. 
All seemed to be selling “Premium” Zebronics when asked about higher range stuff. 
Oh man, that sucks real bad. Power supply was a real issue to me. Turns out I wasn’t getting those “hardcore” power supplies, so my GeForce 6800GT, which was working fine, had to be changed, and then that’s when I realised I needed a real power supply. So a changed a perfectly fine 6800 to a 5200. Nooooo!
Wendy
16 Mar 08 at 8:58 am
Ah that sucked yeah. My 7600GT might have been the cause of a hotter SMPS before but this new one is cool so far. Lets see how long…
Harsh
16 Mar 08 at 9:10 am
Never expect anything good from Ritchie Street. You will have to search up and down just to find a favourable brand there.
So what UPS are you getting? I guess if you go to ritchie for that you may only get intex and iBall.
Karthiksn
16 Mar 08 at 1:21 pm
Those SMPS pieces that they recommend in magazines and in websites, you can forget about them. In Chennai you get only unbranded and Zebronics and Intex stuff. It’s worrying when graphics cards need more and more power and we still have the same crappy brands.
And a UPS is compuslory! How could you not use one!
Marc
19 Mar 08 at 12:36 am
I am living with UPS for about 3yrs, I think i should also get one.
So What you say, Which one to go for?
backup is not important, it should be Reliaible
Gaurish Sharma(gary4gar)
24 Mar 08 at 4:39 pm
Ayyo paapum!
I “borrowed” a UPS from my Mum’s Bank around 7 years ago and it is still functioning fine back home……though the backup time’s reduced to ~30 mins and the LED’s are all but gone, it’s more than enuff.
Good Luck with the new SMPS tho….and pray that TNEB doesn’t send another ’surge’ your way
YCR
24 Mar 08 at 7:53 pm