What should I check after my PC suddenly shut down during a possible power flicker?
Asked by
MellowPine47
My PC abruptly powered off during heavy rain, and I suspect there may have been a very brief outage or voltage disturbance. The AC, router, and my monitor's USB-powered light bar stayed on, so the interruption may have been extremely brief. My UPS did not beep or visibly switch over. The computer started normally afterward and seemed to work fine, but I'd like to run some checks to make sure there was no file-system or hardware damage. I was only working in Microsoft Word when it happened. The system uses a Corsair SF1000 power supply. My UPS is a Prolink Pro2000SFCU 1200W/2000VA with AVR, although I have since replaced it with a CyberPower CP1600EPFCLCD rated at 1600VA/1000W. Is there anything specific I should test or be concerned about?
Answers
Your UPS sounds like a standby or line-interactive unit rather than a true online double-conversion model. Those units do take a few milliseconds to transfer to battery, but a normal PC power supply is designed to ride through very short interruptions. Online UPS units provide power from the inverter continuously, but they aren’t usually necessary for a typical home PC.
Reply to this answer
You can run `chkdsk` from an elevated Command Prompt. For the system drive, `chkdsk /f` may schedule the scan for the next reboot because Windows is using the drive. That’s normal. The `/r` option is generally unnecessary for a healthy SSD unless you have signs of drive problems; it performs a much more extensive scan.
OrbitingLemon8: If you get “Access denied,” make sure Command Prompt or Windows Terminal was started with “Run as administrator.” You can also let Windows schedule the check when it asks to scan the drive on the next restart.
Reply to this answer
If the PC boots normally and everything is working, it’s probably fine. You can check Windows Event Viewer for unexpected shutdowns and run a file-system check if you’re worried about corruption. An abrupt power loss usually doesn’t damage a healthy system, though unsaved work or files being written at the time can be affected.
Reply to this answer
Add your answer
Answers are reviewed before publication.
BriskWalnut5: The AVR feature helps correct moderate voltage changes, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the UPS is online or that it will react to every extremely brief disturbance. Since the computer is operating normally, there’s no immediate reason to assume the SF1000 was damaged.