anyone have a power surge or cut at about 00:00 (12midnight)?

i did :evil: took 20mins to boot up!

nope nothing here (S7)

Nothing here either (S11). Good job as I didn't have my power surge protector plug plugged in. Do they actually do anything anyway? I'm scared a surge will put my computer up in flames!

Nope, nothing here [S8].. We've had our fair share of power loss recently thanks..
Went without power a couple of weeks ago for about 8 hours, but that was a fault underground and they had to come and dig the ground up and play with wires..

i put the kettle on about that time while watching Liquid news on BBC3 might have been me making the power go funny sowwie RPG :D

lol, it was like a dip in the power, the lights dimmed and the PC went off :o

sounds like a brownout.

Lots of you all up late...

Originally posted by "t020"

Nothing here either (S11). Good job as I didn't have my power surge protector plug plugged in. Do they actually do anything anyway? I'm scared a surge will put my computer up in flames!

It won't make your 'puter go up in flames but...

3 years ago we had a lightning strike in Crookes, damage to 'puter:

modem, cpu & something else (I can't remember) deceased,

telephone shuffled off this mortal coil

tv needed de-gaussing - £50

combi boiler (3 months old) circuit board became an ex circuit board.

Total cost of lightning strike was over £400, luckily insurance covered it.

Here's the kicker - I had no surge protection but it didn't matter as the strike came down the 'phone lines and the mains.

I think my point is unplug everything during a storm, even the 'phone.

Yes, we learnt the lightning strike thing the hard way too! Our video melted down inside, 2 phones broke, and a modem on my old computer. I was lucky it was only the modem really because it usually goes through and affects the motherboard, cpu, etc.

Originally posted by "RPG"

anyone have a power surge or cut at about 00:00 (12midnight)?

Yes, power cut out for about 1 second but my laptop kicked into battery mode so I had no problems.

Belkin manufacture a surge protector that also covers the phone line. I'd strongly recommend investing in one.

I once saw an inch wide black hole at the back of a computer once where the modem cable went! A lightning strike hit a phone line and totally fried the computer.

What were you all doing up at this ungodly hour anyway?!
I was fast asleep! :lol:

No I didn't, does anyone else use a power surge adaptor as I do, just in case such a thing happens and possibly damages your computer?

Originally posted by "halevan"

No I didn't, does anyone else use a power surge adaptor as I do, just in case such a thing happens and possibly damages your computer?

I use one, but I'm not sure if they work or not.

I have a power surge adapter on my computer equipment.. Nothing else.
Ours also came with some kind of gurantee that it worked, and if not they'd pay for the damages caused by a power surge or something. I'm not sure exactly..

a power surge protector aint gonna do nothing for a DIP in power :P

what we need is a UPS

I've got a petrol generator under the desk, have to keep the window open though as the fumes get too strong. Also you got to be careful not to burn your legs on the engine. Jeez... modern technology eh! :lol:

i can sort of hear some pc related power cut experts around..

i am not in shefield, in london actually, but i think a 1sec power cut has damaged my pc.

apart frm taking 30mins to reboot, it switches itself off every 30mins to 2hrs and then struggles to reboot again. actually only the screen goes off, pc still working and there is a weird periodical sound coming through speakers, but i need to reboot by turning power off first if i want to use it, nothing else seems to help.

could anybody tell me how damaged my computer can actually be and if a power cut can result in that? it was in normal working order before that.. could it have been something else?

by the way i have noticed allarmingly high cpu lately, esp after the event. related, non-related what could that be now? i hardly run any programme at the minute as im afraid the more i run the more likely to switch off it is..

anybody that can suggest anything.. it will be very much appreciated. thanks

The surge could have damaged the processor fan in your computer and, as a result, the CPU is overheating.

I have seen power spikes damage quite a few power supplies - not enough to blow them, but just enough to scramble the 12V supply.

It would explain the symptoms you are having.

Take the side off your computer case and check that the fan is going round. If you are familliar with the BIOS most modern PCs have a utility in there to tell you the fan speed and CPU temperature. If not, you can download a utility to do it, or it may be on the CD provided with your computer's motherboard.

fan noise is as loud as ever, cannot fool me, its there and working at noises similar to a boat engine.

everything looks ok.

hasnt had a problem in a while, i mean it hasnt switched itself off all night, since 2am.

cpu is under control, reaches 100% when i scan for spyware or viruses or periodically when i run winmx but i want to think that is normal. i havent been spending a lot of time monitoring my cpu till some time recently when pc has been slowing down a bit.

do u think i should be alarmed as to take the patient for a checkup or should i just wait and see what happens? could it have just been power instability because of the power cut shock?

Originally posted by virio
could anybody tell me how damaged my computer can actually be and if a power cut can result in that? it was in normal working order before that.. could it have been something else?
Ok... more a generic thing really but a power spike or outage can completely ruin a machine..

The list of things that can happen are:
- surge on phone line blows out your modem, and if you're really unlucky other components on your mainboard.

- surge on your power line blow out pretty much everything..

- brownout or surge in the middle of a hard disk defrag can sometimes total your hard drive

- any kind of power interruption in the midst of a firmware or BIOS update can leave you with a useless motherboard, or whatever bit of hardware it was that you were upgrading (eg: DVD/CD writers, etc..)



Ultimately the best protection is to get a decent UPS (uninterruptable power supply) as these are designed to iron out any power surges and can in the event of a brownout, provide enough power for you to gracefully shutdown...

If your power is pretty good, as sheffields has been until recently, then you can generally get away with a surge protector and I'd highly recommend one with phone protection too for your modem.