Windows 10: Question about recent power outage and PC

Since changing CMOS battery and Surge Protector there has not been anymore issues with my PC not powering on. Thanks for all the help and info.

 

Not sure if this was a cure but it worked and not sure why although it came to me to try this.

Came home from work and noticed my power went out while at work. After being home awhile i went to turn on my PC and it did not come on at all no lights nothing.

I checked all breakers in house nothing had tripped. I plugged the PC into another outlet in the house and still no power i proceeded to test the EVGA power supply with the EVGA Detection Tool and i had power to the power supply then.

Something told me to remove the CMOS battery and once put back in power was restored to the PC and everything is fine.

What else can i expect, was this correct and why?

I am not sure the only thing i see from my surge protector is that part of it called a green zone does not work anymore on it's outlets so i switched this feature off, most likely look into a new one if this can be a cause or future issue with it.


:)

 

Asus Anti Surge

i fast question. My mobo Asus Z170-P and psu Corsair 750RM. 3 months ago there was power outage ( for short time ) in my house,and my pc restart with message: "“Power supply surges detected during the
previous power on ASUS anti-surge was triggered to protect system from unstable supply unit.” Press F1 to continue." After restart is again fine. So question. Why after power outage i get that msg? Is this normal?

In bios i have AC POWER LOSS RESTART OFF. So why it is restarts with Anti Surge instead of shutting down?

I was in work when that happened so i cant tell how long was power outage.

 

Power Outage / lost all files

I'm running Windows 10 on an hp ENVY 23 desktop and there was a power outage that lasted for all of 10 seconds. The pc was on at the time and when the outage shut it off I powered it back on to find all of my files I had on the desktop are now gone. Is
this a normal function for a pc that goes through a power outage? Also I tried to do a recovery and restore but I get the message that no changes could be made.

 

By removing the CMOS battery you are clearing all previously stored BIOS and configuration settings. It also allows the motherboards capacitors to fully drain their power when removed.

If it is not working, then I would recommend getting a new one and stop using it.

 

Thanks for the response !

I read about CMOS Battery and only took it out for a few seconds and put it back in and i never made many changes to the BIOS settings except Memory profile which i had to set back to Profile 1.

Surge Protector works fine when i shut off the Green Power switch but i am already looking into purchasing a new one. I have shut off the PC several times and it is fine. You say it fully drains the power when removing this battery i am not fully understanding how that solved my powering on situation by doing so.

 

It seems a power surge / spike may have corrupted your BIOS settings. Removing the BIOS battery sets the BIOS values to their default settings. I had a similar issue which required the BIOS to be reflashed. A low CMOS battery voltage can also cause a temporary loss of BIOS settings. I would replace the battery (normally a CR2032) if the voltage is below 3V. Note many BIOSs let you save / load your preferred BIOS setting. This is handy - you load the defaults, reboot then set your preferred saved values.

 

It's unlikely the power surge actually corrupted the OP's BIOS settings. Those are mostly stored on flash memory along with your BIOS image so if the surge corrupted the settings it's likely that the BIOS itself would be corrupted as well and require a full reflash. Also, the BIOS settings don't come into the picture if the system won't power up at all.

My guess is that the surge messed up the power sequencing on the motherboard. In order to boot, the PCH and various other components require the voltage rails and reset signals to rise and fall in a specific order within a certain amount of time. This includes the VccRTC-based signals powered by the coin battery. So if a surge caused some voltage or reset signal to come up unexpectedly, the motherboard may enter a bad state and get stuck. Draining the VccRTC rail resets everything back to 0.

 

Thanks ! BIOS was fine no reflash needed just had to reset some settings back to the way i had it before. As far as the power supply i am using another till i get a better one i am not sure the power outage did it or not as i was not home at the time just noticed one of my clocks was flashing. I do have one of those batteries CR2032 (common battery for many items) noticed when taken out it was that type. Computer is not very old and heard they can last a long time.

You mean this voltage from 3v shown on AIDA64.

 

VBAT generally refers to the coin battery.

 

Thanks for the reply ! How about when a PC is unplugged for a period of time say in storage ? As said not sure the outage caused corruption to the surge protector or the surge protector had an issue from the PC being plugged into the Green Power outlets of this surge protector. I had switched off this feature and outlets did work but not to power up the PC till i removed it's battery.

You both know more then i do on this matter i was not sure why this worked but so far glad it did and did not ruin my board, Power Supply or anything else in the process. Will be getting another better Surge Protector

 

If the PC is unplugged from the wall then the coin battery will be supplying all the RTC power. So the battery will drain faster than if you left the PC plugged in. But on a fresh battery it would still take years for it to fully drain.

Those "green power" sockets are not standardized so their behavior is up to the manufacturer. But they obviously contain additional electronics and probably mechanical relays that can fail during a surge. I doubt that they were directly responsible for the PC not powering up but there's really no way to tell.

 

"You mean this voltage from 3v shown on AIDA64."

I normally measure the actual CR2032 voltage with a voltmeter and fit a new battery if under 3V. A new battery is normally over 3.2V. Problems with these batteries can cause so much pain and grief so I replace them regularly. I haven't seen a hardware monitor before which reports the CMOS battery voltage. Maybe your motherboard is rare in having a sensor which reports this?

 

A transient into a motherboard may have corrupted CMOS settings. Battery voltage would be irrelevant. A PSU normally would have averted (blocked) that transient. Problem is an adjacent protector that compromised (bypassed) that PSU. Adjacent (power strip) protectors have a long history of connecting a transient directly into the motherboard; bypassing what is superior protection.

Anyone can see that. For example, take a meter. Measure conductivity from that protector's third prong (on its AC plug) to many IC pins and other motherboard parts. That is the direct connect that a transient would have used to only corrupt CMOS settings.

That transient is averted at the breaker box - a 'whole house' solution. If that computer needed protection, then all appliances (motorized and electronic) also needed that protection. Even near zero joule plug-in protectors need that protection.

It was a tiny transient. Would have only corrupted some CMOS settings. Next time, the transient may be significant - do hardware damage.

Do not waste money on plug-in boxes. Those do not claim to protect from typically destructive surges (as specification numbers make obvious). Apparently a 'whole house' protection system does not exist (that costs about $1 per protected appliance - it is that inexpensive). That 'whole house' solution necessary to even protect tiny joules in a plug-in protector.

BTW holding down a front panel button does not drain capacitors. Those capacitors have bleeder resistors (typically 100K ohms) that drain charges in seconds. Those bleeder resistors were standard for protecting human life - even back when electronics used vacuum tubes. All capacitors are automatically discharged in seconds.

 

Then the battery looks good ?