System Damage from Power Loss?

apcs13

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Oct 2, 2013
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Hi everyone,

Just today, my neighborhood suffered from a power outage, and when it happened, my new desktop PC was on. All I was doing was watching a YouTube video, but the system was running when the power was lost. The outage lasted for about an hour, and then I re-booted my PC and it seemed to be running just fine. However, I did a few Google searches about this topic to see if my hardware could have been harmed, and my results are inconclusive.

Some sites said that there was no harm possible, others said there is potential to ruin your whole PC, while some said that you could only suffer corruption of data on your hard drive potentially, and some claimed that this was more "wear and tear" damage over time to the components.

I don't have anything really important on this PC yet, so all I care about is whether or not my new hardware could have some issues now or in the future.

My question to you guys is this: could a power outage damage the actual hardware inside a PC? For reference, I do not have a UPS (working on getting one, any good recommendations or what to look for?), and my PC was plugged into a pretty good surge protector, but that's pretty much it. Also, my power supply is the Corsair TX 650 power supply, and my motherboard is the Asus M5A97 R2.0. Full PC specs are in my signature.

Thanks for any and all help!
 
Solution
There are a few things to consider here that give you an answer.

Shutting down mainly only has issues with data loss/corruption. If its fine right when you boot up, its fine.

Power failure can cause damage, but thats extremely rare: It has to be a surge running through back to the PC, passing any surge protected power strips, and finally get through the PSU, which any semi decent PSU can stop a surge, sometimes killing themselves to protect the rest of the PC.
There are a few things to consider here that give you an answer.

Shutting down mainly only has issues with data loss/corruption. If its fine right when you boot up, its fine.

Power failure can cause damage, but thats extremely rare: It has to be a surge running through back to the PC, passing any surge protected power strips, and finally get through the PSU, which any semi decent PSU can stop a surge, sometimes killing themselves to protect the rest of the PC.
 
Solution
Yes an outage can easily damage or ruin a PC. There is sometimes a surge before the outage and this can fry computers easily. My parents old DELL died this way.

Your PSU, as stated above, is designed to take the surge and die, while keeping the computer safe.

If it works, you have done zero damage and don't even worry about it.