Often when a lightbulb blows in our house the trip switch on the main electrical box cuts off the electricity to the entire house and has to be reset. Which is easy enough - except that it throws out my settings in Cubase (even when my PC isn't switched on) and I'm then left looking at a message that reads 'pending connections'. Tiresome.

Does anyone know of a socket/plug I can buy to stop my PC from being affected in this way - or should I employ the services of a professional electrician to stop the electric tripping in the first place? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

Pull the plug out the wall!

There are also anti-surge devices, Maplins

Are you using a 'dodgy' copy of Cubase? these seem more fragile and lose their settings very easily

1. Check the mains voltage value. It is supposed to be 230V. We had similar problems and I discovered that we were getting 260V!

2. Use energy saving bulbs, they dont blow as often and are not a solid short circuit when they do.

3. Chech the value and condition (age etc.) of the fuse that blows.

4. Like the man said, always pull the plug or switch off ALL equipment at the mains. Computers are not really off when you only power down. They are still using electricity and you are shortening their life span.

Bulbs often take out the trip. Most modern houses have the lighting circuits on separate trips from the ring main supplies to stop the whole house going off. It might be worth having an electrician take a look to see if there is anything wrong with the current set up and how practical it would be to install separate trips for the lighting circuits.

Alternatively, and arguably better for the planet, install long-life energy-efficient bulbs because they don't blow in the same way (or anything like as often).

If you computer is off when the trips blow, it is impossible for the Cubase settings to change. I suspect what is happening is that other devices connected to your computer, which may still be powered up, are getting upset by the mains glitches.

Turning them off and on again with their own mains switches will probably make them reset, and if you then power the computer all should be fine.

The easiest solution, though, would simply be to change your lightbulbs.

hugh

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Technical Editor, Sound On Sound

Hi Michael, Red Bladder and Hugh,

many thanks for replying - I'll pay Maplins a visit, check the voltage, switch off at the wall and buy some energy saving light bulbs.

Really appreciate your advice.

Fothers

Quote Hugh Robjohns:

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...change your lightbulbs.

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Hi
In my experience by far the worst offenders are screw-bulbs (incandescent, not energy-efficient) used in Ikea lighting units.

I don't know why such bulbs should short the mains so badly when they fail - ordinary bayonet caps hardly ever seem to do so.
Nasty continental designs

Hi Paul, never knew that. Bayonet caps it is then.

Thanks for your tip

fothers

Quote PaulD:

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I don't know why such bulbs should short the mains so badly when they fail - ordinary bayonet caps hardly ever seem to do so.
Nasty continental designs

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Yep - same here - the screw bulbs in the kitchen light fitting fail far more often than the bayos elsewhere.

Whether this is a problem with the (brand of) screw bulb, or a problem with the kitchen light fitting, I can't say...

a possible reason is that only screw-ins are used in mainland Europe and before the EU went for 230V mains supply, 220V was the universal standard. These bulbs were made to take 220V and it is my guess (just a guess though!) that no changes were made to the filiment for the extra ten volts.

In the UK, most supplies are still running at 240V so the UK bulbs (the UK is the only country that uses bayonet bulbs) will last longer.