I moved my power strip and accidentally switched it off while the computer was shut down through the operating system, but I had not flipped the switch on the power supply itself. The PC was not running, and this has happened twice. I previously had a computer fail after repeated power interruptions while gaming, so I'm worried I may have damaged this one. Should I be concerned?
3 Answers
You should be fine. If the operating system had already shut down and the computer wasn’t in sleep or hibernation, cutting power at the strip is essentially the same as removing standby power. It shouldn’t damage the hardware.
The bigger concern is unstable power, such as repeated brief outages or surges when power returns. A decent surge protector can help, and a UPS is worth considering if outages happen often. If the PC has fully shut down, though, this specific incident is nothing to worry about.
It’s best not to make a habit of cutting power while Windows is still running, especially during an update or BIOS firmware update, because that can cause data or software corruption. But doing it after a normal shutdown is harmless. The power supply switch usually doesn’t need to be turned off at all.
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