I was using my PC last night when the power suddenly went out. Today, when I turned it back on, the PC and monitor would start up, the lights would turn on and the fans spun, but my monitor showed a "No Signal" message. I checked the cable and everything was properly connected. I believe that either my video card or my monitor or even my CPU may have been damaged by the power outage. Is there a way to test this theory? If they turn out to be damaged, is there a way to repair them? Is the power company responsible for the damage to my computer? Thank you for any help.
Firstly, no the power company is not responsible, the way it is infrastructured into our cities is very complex, and a problem can happen at any time or any place. If your PC was precious enough to yourself you would of used a UPS with it.
Firstly, do you have a different video card to test? Heck even hooking your monitor up to an integrated card will verify if the external card is dead or not. Or if the monitor is damaged.
Secondly, I find it doubtful anything could of died, else your PC would give you POST beeps which helps indicate what the problem is.
Well that's the mystery. I have all my components (monitor, PC, everything) plugged into a surge protector. I'm wondering why the hell it's not working after a power outage. Could a sudden loss of power break something?
[editline]8th August 2011[/editline]
I tested my monitor on another computer and it works fine.
Sounds like the video card has died. As for the surge protector thing... well that has me stumped. It's either a knock-off surge protector (highly unlikely) or some other mystery...
Are you able to test the video card in another PC?
cdlink14 has a good idea of what is going on. I would of thought your best solution would of been to test the GPU and montior in a seperate system to check which of the two is bust. As for the surge protector, that's very odd, I don't even use one and everytime I have a power outage there doesn't ever seem to be a problem.
[QUOTE=Jah Mason;31611149]cdlink14 has a good idea of what is going on. I would of thought your best solution would of been to test the GPU and montior in a seperate system to check which of the two is bust. As for the surge protector, that's very odd, I don't even use one and everytime I have a power outage there doesn't ever seem to be a problem.[/QUOTE]
I've been running without a surge protector for about 10 years now, and still not had any power related problems.
The power constantly goes out in my neighborhood and I've never had any problems with this before. I just bought this video card a month ago too, so this sucks if it's busted.
[QUOTE=cdlink14;31611330]I've been running without a surge protector for about 10 years now, and still not had any power related problems.[/QUOTE]
That's what I mean, I really don't see what the problem is.
[QUOTE=cdlink14;31605978]Firstly, no the power company is not responsible, the way it is infrastructured into our cities is very complex, and a problem can happen at any time or any place. If your PC was precious enough to yourself you would of used a UPS with it.[/QUOTE]
Actually, the power company can be held liable depending on what service you have. If you have three phase service and a leg fails and destroys your equipment, they can be held responsible. Power companies make special failsafe devices to stop this from happening, but they don't always work.
I've worked with three phase equipment during power failures before and it wasn't fun.
But anyway, surge protectors offer very little protection from power surges. They only protect against one type of spike, and usually unreliably. When power failures and restorals happen, there are multiple types of problems it can create, ranging from spikes, over voltage, brown outs, insufficient amperage and cycle problems. I suggest you get an UPS instead of a rubbish surge protector, more specifically, one with a line filter.
Power surges are also not limited to just the mains, they can come in through the phone line, cable and other devices attached to your computer. I've had a power surge come in through my cable modem and fry my router and every NIC attached to it in every computer in the house.
I suggest you look at every component in the computer very carefully (use a magnifying glass if you must) to see if there are any burn marks anywhere.
Sorry about the bump, but I wanted to inform anyone who posted here. It turns out that something DID get destroyed by the surge. Luckily, it wasn't any computer parts.
It was the modem's power chord.
I unplugged it and my computer works now. I just had to go to the AT&T store to buy a new adapter chord and now everything works fine. Thanks for the help everyone!
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