power went out...pc died for a few hours

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
Hey all,

something wierd happened today with our electricity...it was eaither a very short power cut or a surge.

the house lights started to flicker then my computer just turned off but then all the lights came back on after a few seconds.
anyway everyones house alarms were going off because of this so i just thought it was a powercut and everything was back to normal now so i went to switch my pc back on and nothing....it was dead.

i tried about 5 times to switch it on and nothing from the tower at all.

but i went out after this and 2 hourslater of been out i came back home and tried my pc again and it came on?

so its all working fine now and no problems so im happy :D

what prevented my pc from switching on?
i thought my Psu had blown or maybe the fuse in the socket:D

do you guys think i should buy a surge protector?
 
well i think psu have a temp fuse. so if it exceds something it will blow for 5-10 min or so. but once it is ok it un-blows and is ok
 
thanks for replying...but if it blew that woudnt it need replacing?

i dont understand much about Psus:D
 
well. i dont know how it works. but it is a temp fues. can blow over and over... like your house circuit breaker but it resets itself.. i think
 
Most of the newer top end power supply's have some sort of surge protection and protection from short Brown-outs.

Cheaper power supply's might be lacking that sort of protection though, so if you have a lower end PSU and you have those types of electrical problems in your area from time to time, then you might consider either getting a new power supply that has the protection you need built in, or buy a non-interruptible battery back up.

All a surge protector is going to do is help protect you from a power surge. But from what you described, you had a brown out. A surge protector will not help you with that.
 
You might want to buy a battery powered surge protector.

I bought mine after a LAN party. Cause the power went out and messed my computer up.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842101008


I have that one.

that looks a good one,I might get one because power surges can take out anything like your Psu,Mobo etc cant thay?

Most of the newer top end power supply's have some sort of surge protection and protection from short Brown-outs.

Cheaper power supply's might be lacking that sort of protection though, so if you have a lower end PSU and you have those types of electrical problems in your area from time to time, then you might consider either getting a new power supply that has the protection you need built in, or buy a non-interruptible battery back up.

All a surge protector is going to do is help protect you from a power surge. But from what you described, you had a brown out. A surge protector will not help you with that.

my Psu is a cheap 400W power supply and thats what made me think maybe it has blew:D

we dont get problems all the time with our electricals...i think this is the first time its happned in 2 years:)

do those non-interruptible battery back up keep the pc running for a while if the electricity goes off or will it restart?
 
it will keep your comp running. it is so amazing how fast they switch but it will keep it going for 1-3 hr. you and also connect to it and make it turn of the computer when it is geting low
 
my Psu is a cheap 400W power supply and thats what made me think maybe it has blew:D

A power-dip, or "brown-out" shouldn't cause your PSU to blow. A surge can, not a dip. It was probably some sort of power conditioning taking place, to insure a steady smooth current, i dunno.

An "online" UPS is great, but as you said yourself, the dip doesn't happen much. Most people only go for a UPS when they can't (or don't want to) afford their computer to shut-down, ala they're working on something that needs to be saved, or they're gaming.
 
if your gonna look at a battery backup looks at a UPS, you get alot more protection, more features, and longer backup time.

My dad consults for powervar:

http://www.powervar.com/

we run UPS's on all of our compters and networking gear, so when the power goes out we get 5-6 hours of uptime on each computer and around 10 hours of uptime on the networking gear.
 
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