Yesterday I was at home for lunch and an unexpected storm plowed through the area. One nasty round of lightning had the hydro blink a few times before going down for the count.

Now I have surge protection on my main panel as well as a good quality surge bar for my pc's. I normally also have a UPC for my pc as well, but a few months ago the battery died in it, so I have ditched it for the time being, possibly a big mistake.

My main pc powered up no problem, but my older one that I leave running around the clock is dead. I am pretty sure the surge didn't get past the main panel, but I am thinking the sudden power flipping off and on quickly may of not been good for things anyways.

I have not taken anything apart yet, been busy with other things but am wondering if it would just be the power supply, or would it be something on the mother board?

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

Did you open the box and sniff it? If it was a lightning related failure usually you'll be able to tell by the burning 'ozone' odor.

Does nothing at all happen when you press the power button?

Have you tried another power supply? If you're comfortable around electronics you can try putting a load on the suspect one and measuring the outputs. If you're not comfortable I'd suggest not doing it, lest you be electrocuted and sue me.

Hard to tell otherwise. If the power supply is bad there's no guarantee the motherboard is ok. Usually the RAM, HDD, Drives, etc. will be fine. Of those the next most likely to go after the motherboard is the RAM.

It could be one or the other, or both.

First, flip the O/- switch on the back of the power supply to reset it. I usualy flip and leave it like that for a moment and then come back to see if it will even power on.

Sometimes this is the case, sometimes not. Not many ways to really test without replacing parts and troubleshooting that way or going over it with a volt ohm meter.

I flipped the back switch off and on and tried the front one, no dice.

I think its been nearly 3 years since I last replaced the power supply, and I never shut it down other than reset it once in a while.

My fault for being lazy on replacing the UPS, I swear by those things, little wonder I don't practise what I preach.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

sudden loss of power shouldn't cause what you're seeing, chances are it was a small surge that made it past your surge protector and fried your psu.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Running 24/7 on computers not designed for it can be pretty tough on the equipment.

We went through a rash of power related problems after about three years on our Dells at work. At that time it was the policy to leave the computers on over night for updates (and these were even power-on-LAN capable machines.../facepalm). Before all the machines were "tech refreshed" with new ones, the poor technician they had doing hardware repairs was going through 20 to 30 motherboards and 5 to 10 power supplies a week. Oddly enough, it seemed to be harder on the motherboards. And it was even worse when we had wide-spread power outtages...buncha machines would not come back on afterwards.

Talked with the tech at length about it (he sat one door over) after he had been doing this for about two months and one tip he had was looking at the tops of the capacitors (cans) on the motherboard. If they were flat on the tops, he would try the power supply first. If the tops were were bowed up, then he replaced the motherboard first. By this time he was fixing most of the problems with the first replacement.

Anyways, all of this to say the power interruption may not have caused your issue, but was just the first opportunity for the computer to show you it was sick.

Oh, and since all of the above, the work policy is now to power off machines at night. *chuckle*

Just an update on this, it was the power supply that pooched.

My gaming machine I power down when not using, this one gets to run around the clock.

I did replace the UPS though, I think the other one was getting old and long in the tooth.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

I have the opposite experience. Of all the hardware I serviced the ones that get turn on / off every day crap out a lot more often.

The machines you leave on 24/7 run great for a long time....... till you turn them off, then they can get picky about wanting to start back up again.

I am a "leave on" guy, just because I use the computer so often, turning it on and off all day long is no good for it... all that heating and cooling of the internal parts will surely cause more wear... right?

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I'm with Fin on this one. I have everyone leave their machines on 24/7 and 7yrs later am just now starting to swap out old Dell Dimension 4400's with Acer Aspire R3610's which by the way kick much ass in a TS environment running both wired and wireless connections. Takes about 15min to load W7 Pro 64bit on them and boom, ready to deploy.

http://biz.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5590492

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

This old ass 1 gig pentium 3 has been running almost constantly for about 3-4 years now. Works fine, but I also don't do much that taxes it.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

yep. I experience this both in personal and professional life.

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