power outage hit

[capequahog]

This happened during the snowstorm. For whatever reason the power to the house took an off/on hit. My PC shut down and what happened was when power was back on my power LED was flashing and PC would not power on at all. I hit the power on and reset button and no go but the LED kept flashing. I have the power cord into a good surge protector which I switched on/off, still NG. I on/off the pwr spply switch, NG. I finally unplugged the power cord from the power supply and plugged it back in. When I did I thought I heard an arc or click or whatever and the machine powered up ok. I guess this is my power reset from now on. This by the way is a home build that this was the first time the power hit happened. Does this sound familiar to anyone? :cool:

[LadyGrey]

Happened to me too. Just yesterday with the snow here. I had to do the same thing. I unplugged everything, and turned off the surge protector. Let it all sit for a few minutes and then plugged everything back in and then powered right on up. Don't know why, maybe one of the guru's can give us an idea. First time it's happened to me too. Most times I can just hit the reset or the power button and everything is fine. You are not alone!:D

[saphalline]

Computer power supplies have a built-in safety for this sort of thing. It's good that you had the surge protector or your computer would not have survived.

Anyway, what happens is that if the power goes out completely the PSU has a timer in it. If full power comes back on too soon, a little fuse switches off. This fuse controls whether or not your computer can turn on. In order to reset this fuse, you need to unplug the PSU for about 5 seconds or so.

This fuse is in place to protect the system from sudden power interruptions. If power goes out and comes back on too soon, certain parts in your computer can be damaged. Like the hard drive, for instance, which is mechanical. If there's a power interruption to the hard drive, the motor won't have a chance to fully spin down before it gets turned back on. The PSU protects the system from unnecessary wear & tear.

There's also a BIOS setting on most computers that tells your computer whether or not to turn back on after a power outage, but the PSU's fuse takes precedence.

[capequahog]

Sap, you are the MAN! Thanks for reply, one has too much moolah invested not to be aware of these things. Thank you.