Why power failures are a problem?

[npoe1]

Why does having an electric power failure like energy cut or under voltage does affect a PC?

What I would like to know is how it can damage a component in the MB, CPU, etc if it's just an under voltage instead of an overvoltage; also the overvoltage should be confined to the PSU instead of the rest of the PC or not?

 

[denis280]

Its when the power comes back on.sometime it is too high.or unstable. and yes the PSU takes the load.so most off the time it is the PSU. but if the psu fail on overload then the mobo and the rest takes the hit.

 

[corkyg]

It's not the power going off, but it is the coming back on at times with a surge. That can damage electronics. A UPS blocks that surge and uses battery power to exit "gracefully."

If the power goes off while the system is in the middle of saving data, the result is often corruption.

A laptop basically has its own UPS - the A/C adapter and the laptop's battery.

 

[npoe1]

One friend's PCs got damage during a blackout everything points to the MB or CPU because Windows freeze without BSOD and Windows was clean reinstalled.

The PSU seems to be fine although we haven't switched to another one and checked.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[piasabird]

Sometimes it has nothing to do with that. A power surge can be strong enough to take out the mains on your house where the electric supply comes in. This kind of surge is dangerous. When the power comes back on, sometimes a surge occurs and I have talked to people whose furnace, tv, refrigerator, etc were completely ruined.

Another scenario is the computer is protected from the power by surge protector and grounding, but a surge can still come in over a network cable or a phone line.

Another problem is that the power supply could be damaged and when the power comes back on and you turn the computer on the unstable power could damage your computer or blow up and catch on fire.

 

[Blain]

Good quality power supplies can handle some power fluctuation, but they have there limits.
The lower quality the PS the less fluctuation it can deal with.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Surge protectors were designed for just this purpose, they don't give you the warning time to save and shutdown that a UPS can provide you but they should protect your system/other appliances that you plug in, mine personally has a guaranteed protection warranty or some sort with it to fully replace/repair anything damage while using this strip if it should ever happen.

 

[Blain]

Surge protectors were designed for just this purpose, they don't give you the warning time to save and shutdown that a UPS can provide you but they should protect your system/other appliances that you plug in, mine personally has a guaranteed protection warranty or some sort with it to fully replace/repair anything damage while using this strip if it should ever happen.

Have you or anyone known of a claim that was actually honored?
I would imagine that there are many hoops to jump through to make that happen.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Have you or anyone known of a claim that was actually honored?
I would imagine that there are many hoops to jump through to make that happen.

For this particular model, no I haven't seen or heard of any claims that were made for it. They probably bank on the fact that people will buy it for the guarantee and 99% of people will never even experience a surge strong enough to damage any of their electronics.

I just bought it because it was on sale at Target, only a tad bit more than the cheapest one but had the guarantee to go with it. Will I ever need it? Probably not, but having it doesn't hurt.