how i wish all electric lines here are underground.
... but i guess i really need a surge protector, even if i have an avr
AVR exists inside electronics. For example, computer specs are blunt about this. Incandescent bulbs can dim to 40% intensity and the computer must still work just fine. AVR is one function required in all computer power supplies - and unknown to many only educated by retail store salesman.
Surges (ie lightning) exist on overhead and underground wires. Any facility that can never have damage always has a properly earthed surge protector. Earth? Do you believe retail salesmen who claim a protector stops and absorbs surges? Will that silly little 2 cm part stop what 4 kilometers of sky could not? That is retail store science. Reality - when surge damage is not acceptable, use no plug-in protectors AND earth one 'whole house' protector.
A protector is only as good as the *protection* it connects to. Protector and protection are quite different. An effective protector makes that less than 3 meter connection to single point earth ground. A protector is only as effective as its earth ground. A protector without that short, dedicated (no sharp bends, no splices, ground wire separated from all other wires, etc) connection to earth does not even claim to provide protection.
Your original post saw failure. Then assumed the reason for failure. Then converted an assumption into fact. How did that surge get into the motherboard and yet not damage the incoming path - the power supply? Just one damning fact that exposed the assumption as false. Assumptions based only on speculation is called junk science; often found when the retail store propaganda is promoted as fact.
Only useful protector is one with that short and dedicated connection to an always required single point earth ground. If AVR is needed, then why is that power supply so defective? AVR is one of many functions preformed in power supplies.
