So my rig is the sig....had a power outage a few nights back(first with this rig). Basically I got the usual 41 Kernel error in my log from the outage which is normal. Here is where things get strange....so my rig has been idling for 18 hours and all of sudden restarted itself. I check my event viewer and same 41 kernel issue. I have a surge protector and a quality PSU so my question is: What is happening?
I can supply any other needed info but this was not an issue prior to the outage and I can't believe that one simple outage crippled a Corsair PSU through a surge protector. Could this be some form of failsafe? I was not in the room so I can't say if it blue screened and reset or just reset but as far as I know my rig doesn't restart auto on Blue Screens so willing to bet it just restarted without one. I have all auto updates set to manual so it couldn't be that either.

I've had a little look on google mate, and it could possibly have killed your ram, mb, or your psu.

Your best bet is to google some, and try some fixes. Just be prepared for having to buy new kit

It's all under warranty but I doubt I caused any serious damage been gaming all night and no issues at all. I reset the BIOS and a diagnostic tool no issues came up.....going to run memtest etc. today but I think it was just a random isolated incident.....quite possible the power just went out again or hiccuped we have terrible service here. Thanks Daddy

No probs mate simple tests like memtest etc are a good idea.

Could also try plugging into a different wall socket if it happens again

Or even switch off your lecky at the mains for a few mins, then switch it back on.

Power outage has nothing to do with surge protection. A surge is when the power supply gets more power than it was designed for, or if the power supply delivers more power to your hardware than it was designed for. Power outage = power off. A power outage can damage your mechanical harddrives and that's probably what you're experiencing. The self restart can also be due to power savings on your GPU as they deploy pretty aggressive power savings that will sometimes crash your OS.

Hrm well the only thing I changed was 12.1 to 12.3 have since reverted back it was not really worth the install. Would it be possible the driver was doing something that caused a restart? Haven't had another reset since and I gamed pretty hard last night.

In regards to the damaged HDD I have been having atapi 11 errors(for a few months now long before the outage) which I chalk up most likely to a bad SATA cable or a bad HDD. Would be great if it was the HDD if anything since I plan on buying a SSD for boot and a WD Caviar 1 TB for storage anyways. It was def one time after the outage only and during a complete idle.

I thought the point of a surge protector was for power outages which could be caused by a line surge. I can't believe all this high quality(minus the HDD) stuff was killed by one outage(was idling during that as well) when my craptastic Dell took about 12 and lasted 8 years never being off. My last rig(the Dell) used to need me to hold the power button down for like 30 seconds to reset something after an outage was wondering if that would be the same with this setup. I am going to dig around my manuals a bit. Thanks for the input Bounce

Surge bars are useless and totally unhelpful for just about every conceiveable situation.

Question:

When was the last time you or for anyone else reading.... RESET a surge bar?

Surge bars are intended for essentially stupidly high surge situations, you essentially need to cause a near dead short for them to trip, or pump some major voltage into them before they'll spaz out.

Additionally, Surge bars are also fairly useless for computer equipment as one thing they are relatively good at handling is surge in voltages, they can easily offload/disapate it..... What REALLY REALLY wrecks a computer or any electronic device fast is brown out, droop, undersurge. Where the voltages drop below the normal running and accepted norms.

All a surge bar is good for is plug multiplying. nothing more.

If you want to properly protect your computer/electronics.... buy a quality UPS with AVR. Personally i thin kthe best is something from APC's back-ups.... they aren't to expensive. a 1500VA (which is able to drive upwards of 865watt sustained draw which is more then sufficient for running a VERY highend computer, combined with 3 monitors/stereo system, multiple usb devices, and router/modem/external storage not to mention a wii/ps3/xbox360 all at the same time almost. You'd get approximately 4-8 minutes of backup life when everything is running full tilt.

Otherwise anything over 600 or for mediocre gaming machines, 800-850VA models should be very sufficient.

The backup isn't intended for "oh hai..... the power is out, so lets play video games for 4 to 8 minutes"... no no, it's for when you need it, surges or droops/total power loss, preventing potential damage to your machine, loss of work, or whatever else.

I also setup UPS for home theater systems and such because they can sure save a lot of money in the end as well as hassles.

Ya I was considering an APC back up but decided to hold off for a bit. System is warrantied so I guess if it has to go back I will grab one before I get it back. Thanks DHJudas

In the last 6 months. I have had 5 power outages and 2 low voltage events. My grandkids live a few hundred miles away. The last time I checked thier UPS. They had over 20 power outages and a bunch of over voltages. Called the power company. Cpl days later they came out and replaced the transformer down the street.

Power failure or hard re-boot can do major damage. Best always to Check Disk for errors after such an event. Can easly corrupt OS or drivers.

I have owend many brands of UPS. ATM I have 2 brand's I use. APC and Cyber Power. The one I like and use the most sofar. Is the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102048. When this is on sale it goes for about 130.00 USD + free shipping. Has the power to back up most SLI or Xfire rigs including any LCD monitor. As soon as this goes on sale again I'l buy a cpl more. I have a bedroom LCD TV that could use it and a grandkid who is ready for thier first computer.

For my rig im using the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102050. Got it on sale for less then 220.00 USD + free shipping. Has saved my rig many times with out fail. I live in the mountans at 7k feet. Close to 2 ski resorts with in 3 miles. The power in my area is just plain nasty in the winter time.

Thanks gonna toss the check disc on now

Update: No errors memtest OK checkdisc OK been running over 24 hours now

There are usually power surges (spike or brown out) associated with a black out. This happens as the power company equipment (or the lines) go offline. This is true especially if the black out is caused by lightning, downed lines or exploding transformers. Even a momentary brown out (when the power diminishes for a fraction of a second, and you see the lights in your house get him or flicker) can cause hardware electrical damage, especially to sensitive components like your RAM, CPU, GPU and sometimes (rarely) harddrives and PSUs.

I suspect the sudden restart and error 41 you experienced may have been caused by a brown out. This is something that most power surge protectors and PSUs are not designed to handle.

My suggestion: get a battery UPS backup. When I first moved to this house power was always fluctuating and I was experiencing restarts frequently. A good UPS completely fixed the problem. Now even if I see lights dimmed or flickering my computer goes on without a hitch.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2028504

Well two rigs same house....I was on my old crappy Dell which stayed on and we had no light flicker so doubting that was the case. I am planning on getting a backup as the power service here is terrible. I went into my BIOS and swapped it back to Normal (had it on ASUS Optimal....my falmer left eye optimal...) not only is everything running way smoother but since I did that(was right after that last 41 kernel in the OP) thing has been running non stop and has not reset in days. Thinking it was random.....thanks for all the help, suggestions and recommendations etc. will resurrect this thread if needed