Electronics Protection

[mike31154]

The front end of most any product with a processor these days is a power supply that converts the line AC into various levels of DC voltage. Pretty much the same idea with most television and radio appliances. The DC is then again internally converted back to various AC voltages for clock circuits etc. It's this front end that will take the brunt of any power irregularities. Most of these are additionally fused so that the very sensitive electronics downstream of all this are fairly well shielded. I'd hazard to guess that it would take a substantial spike, such as lightning to really damage any of this stuff and if that happens, no surge protector in the world is going to help.

Once you open the case of one of these items, it doesn't take much to damage the goodies on the printed circuit board. Walk across the carpet in a dry room, touch an IC on the board and that could be the end of it. Thats why repair technicians wear little wrist bands that are grounded when they're working on this stuff and it's also why sensitive replacement components come in static proof packaging.