Possible damage after power outage

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formsalt

formsalt

PCHF Member
Jun 4, 2024
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Hi there,

I experienced a short power outage while my PC was asleep. It is connected to a UPS, so I wanted to shut it off completely while the UPS still had power. I right clicked twice with my mouse to wake it up, and heard an electrical arc sound both times (in sync with the mouse clicks). The monitor turned on and displayed the normal Windows lock screen, but without any of the buttons or location information boxes ("Like What You See?"). Clicking the mouse and keyboard were unresponsive at this point, so I shut off the PC using the physical power button.

I have tested the mouse and keyboard on another device and they seem to be working fine. I haven't smelled anything burnt or seen any scorch marks although I haven't searched too thoroughly yet. I am unsure whether the sound came from my PC or the UPS as they are right next to each other, but am fairly certain it was one of them (and am leaning towards the PC).
It has sat overnight untouched, and the UPS doesn't indicate any errors.

Is there anything I should do or watch out for before starting up the PC? Additionally, is there any risk of data loss or failure of components?

Thanks!
 
Unless the hard drive is fried, you should have no data loss.
Even if the PC has died, t he drive can always be extracted and put into an external enclosure for data recovery.

I would be opening the side cover of the tower having a bit of a sniff, especially around the power unit.
While inside, look for any obvious power issues like bulging capacitors. Unless a scorch mark is big enough, you tend not to see any but look anyways.

You could unplug the PC from the UPS and plug something else in there instead to test it, like a light or fan or something handy. Otherwise the ultimate test is to fire everything up and find out the hard way!
 
Hi,
I've just turned in on and have ran it for a few minutes. All seems fine so far.
Thanks for your help and all you do here!
 
With this next test, assume you will lose power, so don't have any disk activity happening and unplug any USB storage, but you could also check the UPS be pulling its power cable out of the wall and checking the PC still runs while on backup backup power.
 
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