by ronallandottk on Wed Jul 08, 2009 5:08 am
In response to your questions:
1. Some power supplies have built-in circuit over voltage protection. The power surge may have tripped it. I'd suggest you check if there is a reset switch or a on/off toggle switch on the power supply itself (usually somewhere near where the power cord plugs in) and cycle it on/off. This usually resets the circuit. If you have a surge protector try cycling it as well.
2. It's possible, though in my experience blown power supplies are completely dead, with no blinking lights whatsoever. I would guess that the built-in circuit protection in the power supply may have kicked in (see number 1).
3. I doubt it if your PC is completely fried, though it's possible if the power supply wasn't able to arrest the surge. Try cycling the power supply and surge protector and let us know the results.
4. Even if the power supply was blown, and even if the motherboard was fried as well, it doesn't necessarily mean that the hard disk was ruined. One can simple uninstall the hard drive and plug it into another PC to check if it still works. If it does, the files may still be intact.
5. Some data recovery services charge a bundle for recovering your data, though I don't think you need their services just yet. To be clear, power surges are indeed known to have killed PCs in the past, though PCs from the last few years have become more hardy in surviving such events, thanks to more robust power supplies. I would recommend that you first try cycling the power supply and/or the surge protector to dissipate the surge. If that doesn't work, I'd remove the hard disk and plug it in a working PC to see if it's still readable.
Hope this helps. Don't hesitate to ask if you need more information.
