Weird problem been noticing lately when booting up comp
By
Master-Blade,
Posted on: 2009-10-16 21:44 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
If this is happening too often, it can cause damage to your power supply and even your motherboard or hard-drive. Even with the surge protectors functioning, things are still not being powered down the way they are designed to and can be damaged.
Solution:
Get a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)
It's basically a battery backup that you plug your tower/monitor into, and it kicks in when you have any kind of power outage. It stays charged at all times because it's plugged into your wall outlet, and it gives you enough time to save your work and power down your system correctly to prevent any damage to the system.
Something you might be able to do in the meantime:
If you have a power failure, switch the button on the rear of your tower to the OFF position (and/or unplug it), and then hold the power button to your system for 5-10 seconds. This should release any residual power from the system and allow you to flip the switch back on and turn the system back on normally. (This will not prevent any possible damage to the system due to the initial outage, but it should get you back up and running faster than waiting for the residual power to disperse on it's own)
So i guess the question is, would you say my system is already showing signs of something being damaged? (Based on the info i gave)
If so how exactly could I "checK" to see if anything is really damaged / needs replacing / fixing.
Quote:
Not necessarily. A system not booting up correctly after an outage can be a common thing in certain circumstances. It's when you start to exhibit the same problems when there hasn't been an outage.. that you need to really worry.|
Originally Posted by Wuigly Squigly
So i guess the question is, would you say my system is showing signs of something being damaged already? (Based on the info i gave)
|
I was in your situation before.. (in an old house where flipping on the bathroom light would could shut off the breaker). Luckily for me, the landlord was actually a friend of mine's parent, so I mentioned it to them, and they were nice enough to have an electrician run a separate channel to my room specifically for my air conditioner and electronics. My power problems ceased, but obviously that isn't a solution that everybody has available.
I've always had a UPS though, so I didn't have to worry about any damage, but it was annoying/silly having to always tell my TF team "hold on, I have to turn the power back on". (I keep my modem plugged into the UPS as well so I don't get knocked offline. haha)
Anyway, regardless of anybody's power situation, I recommend getting a UPS.. but in your case, I strongly urge you to get one. You'll definitely be better off.
As for any damage already done to your system... As long as nothing else is acting differently, I wouldn't worry so much. (Do not include behavior directly after power loss, as it would most likely be related to the outage's situation, not specifically damaged hardware). It's hard for any of us to really tell without physically checking it out for ourselves. Just listen for any abnormal sounds from the hard drive and any other odd behavior or slowness of your system as a whole, and troubleshoot from there.
There are also several utilities you can run to check your system's hardware. Some motherboard manufacturers include utilities to check the status of their hardware. Hard drive companies usually have diagnostic programs as well (be very careful using those, as some of the tests actually change/erase data to test the drive). You can also run memory tests to check the Ram as well.
Sometimes after a shutdown or accidental power outage I have to hassle with the computer to get it to boot up again.
Here's an example scenario:
If I boot the computer fresh up in the morning after its been off for hours, or load it up from standby after getting off work, it loads up fine and so far I've never experienced any problems.
However if there is an accidental power outage (Like too many things being on in the house at once and causing the floor with my desktop to go out), or even sometimes if I had just recently turned the computer off, it will (on occasion) refuse to turn on for a couple minutes.
The symptoms include booting it up; it recognizes that it can power up and i hear the fan going. But "normally" when turning it on the fans turn on and then off after a few seconds like so. When this boot problem happens the fan just keep going, like something didn't click. So in this case I would need to power it off and try again after a bit of a wait.
When this happens the monitor doesn't recognize any feed so I see no bootup screen or anything. (Note: Taking out the power cord out from the PSU and letting it sit for a couple minutes does seem to alleviate the problem and I can boot normally again.)
This problem has been showing up lately (haven't really had it before), and lately I have had more power outtages than usual, but not from storms or anything (too much power running in the house causing short circuit), and I have the computer hooked up with a couple surge protectors if that means anything. (I haven't got to experiment yet with turning these off and on to alleviate the prob either)
What I want to know is if there's any problems that I should consider doing something about. On the bright side when the computer does boot normally it seems to operate fine and when restarting the computer there is no problems. Its just a "turn on" prob that I've been noticing and am wondering if there's something I should look into, but as I said it doesn't come up frequently, only after power offs it seems.
Probably a hardware related issue, everything client/software side is solid so I don't know how much advice I'd be able to get via this forum, but any advice or comments would be helpful.
This is not a serious issue (yet), just something that I'm somewhat curious about, and somewhat cautious to know if it could become serious.
(Note this is a dell desktop and the computer is under warranty)