Speakers Need UPS?

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   I had a scare this week when a brief (~250 ms) power brown-out apparently fried my Lynx AES16 card.  In the end, the card and computer configuration recovered, but required some tinkering - and it begs the question:  Do the speakers or other gear attached to my AES16 require a UPS too?

Here's my power configuration:

Building:  Standby generator (Generac Guardian Series 20kW)
Computer:  UPS / power conditioner (APC BR1000G)
Speakers (dedicated 20a circuit #1):  Power Conditioner (Furman PL-PRO DMC)
Studio Outlets/Gear (dedicated 20a circuit #2):  Power Conditioner (Furman PL-PRO DMC)

When we have a power outage, it's only about ten seconds before the natural gas-powered generator kicks in.  So, my strategy was to protect the computer and data with a battery while allowing the rest of the studio to black out until power is restored, whether by utility service or generator.

But here's what happened:  When the brown-out occurred, the studio speakers attached to my computer's AES16 card began emitting a horrible digital noise.  In tandem, Windows "detected a problem" and initiated an automatic self-diagnosis and shut-down routine with no option to abort.  This took about a minute to complete.  Meanwhile, to stop the noise, I shut down power to the rest of the studio via the two Furmans.

When I got everything powered back up, the noise was gone but I noticed the Lynx Mixer was gone and Windows had logged a LynxWDM System error, "Bad Adapter RAM."  Furthermore, the AES16's device status was "not available" or some such thing.  Finally, in shutting itself down, Windows lost all of my work.  Good thing I had a UPS, eh?  Thankfully, I didn't lose anything important.

In the end, simply re-enabling the AES16 card in Device Manager and rebooting the computer restored the card and Lynx Mixer.  However, Cubase managed to implode (not unusual) - cleared itself of all knowledge of the Lynx card and required reconfiguration from the ground up.

So, again, my question is this:  How could a power brown-out (presumably, with no spikes) to the speakers and other digital equipment - there's also an Aurora 8 attached to my AES16 card - disrupt my UPS-protected computer?  Do I need to put a UPS on the other two circuits to prevent something like this (or worse) from happening again?  On the bright side, this would protect any recording takes from disruption too, but that's really more protection than I wanted.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but that's the gist of it.

Any assistance is appreciated.

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david Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Caracal Joined: October/13/2014 Location: Incline Village Points: 18	Topic: Speakers Need UPS? Posted: June/11/2017 at 3:29pm
	I had a scare this week when a brief (~250 ms) power brown-out apparently fried my Lynx AES16 card. In the end, the card and computer configuration recovered, but required some tinkering - and it begs the question: Do the speakers or other gear attached to my AES16 require a UPS too? Here's my power configuration: Building: Standby generator (Generac Guardian Series 20kW) Computer: UPS / power conditioner (APC BR1000G) Speakers (dedicated 20a circuit #1): Power Conditioner (Furman PL-PRO DMC) Studio Outlets/Gear (dedicated 20a circuit #2): Power Conditioner (Furman PL-PRO DMC) When we have a power outage, it's only about ten seconds before the natural gas-powered generator kicks in. So, my strategy was to protect the computer and data with a battery while allowing the rest of the studio to black out until power is restored, whether by utility service or generator. But here's what happened: When the brown-out occurred, the studio speakers attached to my computer's AES16 card began emitting a horrible digital noise. In tandem, Windows "detected a problem" and initiated an automatic self-diagnosis and shut-down routine with no option to abort. This took about a minute to complete. Meanwhile, to stop the noise, I shut down power to the rest of the studio via the two Furmans. When I got everything powered back up, the noise was gone but I noticed the Lynx Mixer was gone and Windows had logged a LynxWDM System error, "Bad Adapter RAM." Furthermore, the AES16's device status was "not available" or some such thing. Finally, in shutting itself down, Windows lost all of my work. Good thing I had a UPS, eh? Thankfully, I didn't lose anything important. In the end, simply re-enabling the AES16 card in Device Manager and rebooting the computer restored the card and Lynx Mixer. However, Cubase managed to implode (not unusual) - cleared itself of all knowledge of the Lynx card and required reconfiguration from the ground up. So, again, my question is this: How could a power brown-out (presumably, with no spikes) to the speakers and other digital equipment - there's also an Aurora 8 attached to my AES16 card - disrupt my UPS-protected computer? Do I need to put a UPS on the other two circuits to prevent something like this (or worse) from happening again? On the bright side, this would protect any recording takes from disruption too, but that's really more protection than I wanted. Sorry for the long-winded post, but that's the gist of it. Any assistance is appreciated.