A question concerning my computer...it died yesterday after a power interruption...?

Question

A storm came and before it arrived the electrical power flashed 3 times...the computer was on and plugged into a circuit breaker...so the computer went off and cut back on twice...the third time it didn't...the circuit breaker was never flipped off and all other electrical things came back on after the third interruption...since the circuit breaker never felt the need to flip off I am thinking the power source inside the computer burned out...this has happened before but I wanted to see what other people thought...oh, the circuit breaker is new...

I live in an area with violent storms and we have electrical interruptions frequently...

So any theories about what is burned out in my computer? My husband and I work on it ourselves so we need an idea before we start ordering parts...

Thanks....

Yes everything plugged into the circuit breaker still works. Just not the computer.

Answer 1

Oh Lord girl! I hate when that happens! I hope it is just the power source and not the motherboard! Good luck!

Answer 2

the first thing that burns out due to power fluctuations is the power supply...it has happened many times to me cause i also live in an area where electrical interruptions are frequent.. i have lost atleast 3 power supply units of the pc cause of that.
If the surge was too strong there is also a chance that the damage reached the motherboard of your computer (which is a bigger loss)..but the best thing to do is to start with the power supply unit. once the power is restored only then you can determine the rest of the damage.

Answer 3

Try the outlet with something you know works first. If it does, check your power strip. These only can take a single surge then have to be replaced. After that you'll want to change you power supply. If that doesn't fix it, you'll have to try motherboard, CPU and memory one at a time. By the way, you probably want to run an earth ground to your house if this happens all the time and get an APC brand UPS.

Answer 4

changing the SMPS will help. if you find a burning smell in the power supply then you must change it.
since you live in a stormy area using a surge protector might help you.
A circuit breaker protects the device from fire-hazards during but the circuitry in electronic devices can be literally FRIED. A surge protector prevents this by harmlessly dissipating the excess energy

Answer 5

it is a good thing to have a back up power supply with a surge protector for the computer so the storms won't mess up the CPU power supply or other sensitive parts. First check the power supply then you need to check other parts to see if they are not burned out.

Answer 6

A good idea would be to have an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) attached to your computer if you live in an area like this (in addition to having a good quality surge protector). You should look for one that has a automatic shutdown feature on it. This means if the power dies, it will keep your computer on and give it time to shut down properly.

Answer 7

Check the power supply to see if it's bad. A good way to see if it has blown up or not is by smelling it. If you smell an oder coming out of it then your power supply has blown up. If no oder try swapping it out anyway. If the power supply checks out fine then your motherboard may have shorted out. If your motherboard checks out fine then it may be your hard drive, RAM, or other drives connected.

Answer 8

Does anything else plugged into the circuit breaker work?

Answer 9

I would definitely check the power supply...I know CompUSA has a tester for about $15 (it's nice to have anyway). If you don't have a tester, try this:

http://www.ochardware.com/articles/psuvolt/psuvolt.html

Answer 10

check your hard drive.....it might have crashed....