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WildCherry

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 10, 2006
3
0
Hi, I live in Spain which is quite prone to electricity spikes. I'd like to hook my new Mac Mini up to a surge protector but the power cable doesn't seem to be compatible with standard surge protectors sold in Europe (UPS) I have one I used with my old PC but I can't figure out how I could use it as what it takes is three pin female sockets of which my mini has none. Do Mac make special UPS for their products in Europe or do I need some kind of adapter? All help gratefully received!:eek:
 

shikimo

macrumors 6502
Jan 17, 2007
377
0
Lyon, France
Hi Wild Cherry,

I'm a wee bit confused...maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like a UPS that you buy from a Spanish store should be equipped with plugs, both input and output, that work in Spain. Which begs the question: did you buy your mini in another country?

There is, unfortunately, no European standard for outlets...we live relatively close together, but my French outlets (class E) look nothing like your outlets in Spain (class C or F). Check out this site for more than you would ever want to know about this subject:

http://www.kropla.com/electric.htm

The good news is that the voltage is relatively consistent throughout Europe, so if you do have a mini from another country you can probably get a simple plug converter, stick it into a socket on a Spanish UPS and plug your mini into it.

Two warnings I can think of:

1) Don't convert it at the wall: for the UPS to work right it needs to plug directly into the local power supply, and

2) If your mini is from a country with something besides 230-240v power, you've got a real problem, 'cuz no adapteur in the world is reliable enough to run your PC for an indefinite period of time.

I use a UPS from a company called MGE that I bought in France, but the directions are printed in many European languages, including Spanish, so they must make one that would work for you.
 
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