Newer desktop power supply issues

[SteveGoetz]

About 6 months ago i built a desktop. It has been running well enough and has never given me and serious problems until today... Now this is a bit confusing so try to read carefully. I had my tower plugged into a surge protector which was plugged into an outlet. I also had a small heater plugged into the surge protector as well as a few other devices. Sometime in the night the circuit for the outlet blew, probably because i had the heater going all night. It's never happened before but there is a first time for everything. Anyways... So I switched the circuit breaker back on and my surge protector came back on. The other devices plugged into it started up just fine, but my Desktop did not. It's not getting any power to it at all. I tried another outlet, even though i knew it wouldn't help, and I was right.... it didn't help at all. I tried turning the computer power switch on and off and hit the power button on and off but no good. The little light on my motherboard won't even turn on so I know that it is simply not getting any power at all. Now I am assuming that my Power supply must have been fried. But what doesn't make sense to me is that I though surge protectors were supposed to prevent this from happening, and why wouldn't the other devices plugged into the surge protector not fail as well? Or the surge protector itself, why didn't it fry? But i Digress.... So I'm pretty sure it was my power supply that died, but I am not very good with hardware know-how so here is my question. Did my power supply save the rest of my computer? or if it was fried should i just assume that the surge fried everything else in my computer too, Like my MB and such? Or are power supplies designed to take the heat and save the other hardware, so i just need to replace it and my comp will be fine? Please help! thanks in advance!

 

[Zilpha]

I'd go ahead and get another power supply. It does sound like it's the most likely thing to have died as a result of too much current being drawn on the circuit. And even if it's not, you will have to get another power supply anyway for a new build.

And in the future, make sure things like small space heaters are on a different circuit than the PC. It could very well have cause an issue since the surge protector wasn't the first to trip.

I am no expert on electricity but the surge protector should have tripped before the house circuit breaker when it detected the devices trying to pull too much current.

EDIT: I'd get another surge protector as well for the PC - with a decent joules rating. The higher the better.

 

[SteveGoetz]

EDIT: I'd get another surge protector as well for the PC - with a decent joules rating. The higher the better.[/QUOTE]

Joules rating? what is that? I have a heavy duty surge protector that is used by contractors for power tools n such. Idk if that is good or bad for a computer. It's electric rating specs are as follows.... 125 VAC, 15 AMP, 60 HZ. There are four little meters/clocks stamped into the plastic under the specs. They read as follows... the first one is on a scale of 5-10 and the arrow on mine points to 7. The second is scaled 1-12 and mine rates 7, the 3rd is scaled 0-3 and mine is on 0, and the 4rth one is scaled 0-9 and mine is on 5. IDK which one the joules rating is for but, that's all i can give. I'm more interested in getting a power supply that has better safety measures against power surges and long term use (I almost never shut my computer off). Any suggestions?

 

[Zilpha]

The joules rating is how much energy the suppressor can absorb before it fails. The good ones give you a visual indicator of when it's hit the max and is time to be replaced.

Here's a page with some information on choosing the right one.

http://www.tripplite.com/en/buying-guides/technology-primers/surge-suppressor-how-it-works.cfm

 

[SteveGoetz]

very kewl ty