It's a power strip not a surge protector.

NEVER cheap out on these. Get you a good surge protector, it can save your life and home.

Amazon, temu, wish etc. are all complicit.

The amount of people I need to explain this to is the mildly infuriating part.

One time when packing up after a LAN party, a friend of mine grabbed my surge protector instead of his power strip. A couple days later I was like "Hey we swapped some gear by mistake. I think you took my surge protector and I have your power strip" and he was was like "Oh well I already set my computer back up at home, so maybe we just keep them because it's the same thing"

Nah, my dude. Mine is an expensive surge protector that I put my expensive computer equipment on. Yours is a $10 power strip from the bargain bin at Home Depot and I would never plug things I care about into it.

He did swap back with me but acted like it was such a bother.

I recommend IKEA for anything like this on the cheaper end.

It should still be properly grounded.

My apartment has fucked wiring, its killed things through decent surge protectors.

At this point all of my computers that I run daily are on APC UPS's.

Good luck nuking shit through one of those.

That's not generally how they are sold. A power strip looks like this. A surge protector is grounded.

Is that something regional? Because in the US, power strips are often sold as grounded. Examples:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/8-in-1-6-Outlet-5-ft-Power-Strip-with-2-USB-Ports-White-LTS-P02/329675198

https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-6-ft-2-Outlet-Braided-Cord-Power-Strip-with-1-USB-A-and-1-USB-C-White-YL-36C/328532018

Product details:
“Grounded outlets”
“Power strip”

Power strips can be grounded or ungrounded.

This particular power strip has ground pins on the outlets, but they're not connected to anything , making the power strip both dangerous and illegal. OP should notify the seller and relevant authorities.

If you take them apart like OP, I wonder if they are really grounded.

Could go either way.

I think a surge protector needs the ground to detect the surge.

I own many power strips that are grounded, but have zero surge protection. These are commercial-grade units with built in, real circuit breakers.

I have a bunch of cheap ones with ground too.

I don't buy surge protectors. They fail in weird ways.

Are you suggesting that a 2 prong power strip/extension cord would be illegal? Because they definitely sell those.

No, they're suggesting that selling a three pronged extension with disconnected ground is illegal. It is illegal and with good reason. A grounded device with a faulty ground can kill someone.

I've gone through a lot of APC products. They don't seem to last in my experience.

But I agree a proper UPS / PDU is important for a computer.

For the cheaper things, I really like Tripp Lite ISOBAR surge protectors.

You have to replace the batteries every 2-3 years

Yeah, I've honestly have had better luck with battery longevity of other brands like CyberPower

I usually don't buy a ups unless I can off the shelf battery replacements.

I always buy the ones marked with either 3680W or 2.5mm2

Which you can do for CyberPower

You don't need to take them apart, you can just plug in an outlet tester.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_outlet_tester

Also, depending on what you plug into it, the device itself might complain about a missing ground connection.

Of course, if you're looking for other issues, you might have to take it apart, but just checking if everything is connected the way it's supposed to can be done non-invasively.

Be sure to use an online type that always powers the output via the batteries, rather than a backup type the switches to battery after the input looks bad.

friends like this aren't friends, they're jerks waiting to use people adjacent to them.

APC used to be rock solid; I have a unit by my foot that's had the battery changed 3 times, once after a nasty power surge / lightning storm, the other two times after a decade of use. IIRC it's a 2001 model. Replacement battery was $22 last time I changed it, just after covid.

You can get 2 prong ones... They look similar to Christmas tree wiring. I've never seen them in "power strip" form... Just extension cables with 3 outlets on the end... Some even with a slot so a grounded plug can go in. You can also buy 3->2 prong adapters for "external grounding".