Are Laptops inherently Safe from Power Spikes and Failures?

Question

Are laptops like the iBook or MacBook series inherently safe from power spikes and short power failures due to the fact that they essentially are running on battery power all the time anyway? Should one use a UPS for a laptop?
I have my iBook connected through a surge protector, but it is not connected to a UPS as well. Should it be? The reason I ask is that today, there was one of these split second power failures. I was not at the computer at the time, but noticed that the printer recycled. When I went to my iBook it was dead. I couldn't start it by pushing on the start button either with the power cord plugged or unplugged. I thought it had gotten zapped some how. But how?
Just for grins, I removed the battery and plugged in the power cord. It started up fine. I powered down, place the battery back in and it started fine on the battery as well. What do you suppose was going on here?
-Bill

Answer 1

Bill,
No, it isn't. You can get power spikes through the AC power cord, the modem, the ethernet port, or any peripheral connected to the computer. A power conditioning UPS is your best bet for protecting it. Make sure that all other connections are also routed through the UPS, too.
It's likely that what happened was that the clamping voltage for the surge protector was too high/too slow to completely prevent a surge into your laptop - either on power down or on main power restoration. It wasn't enough to fry it, but was enough to trigger an overload. Removing the battery allowed it to reset and operate normally.
Since I live in Lightning Central every monsoon season, I can tell you from experience that it is far less expensive to replace a burnt out power-conditioning UPS (or UPS batteries) every few years than it is to replace a boatload of cheap surge protectors or non power-conditioning UPSes and attached hardware.
-Wayne