Power Surge in one room but breaker not tripped?

[Pepi93]

I've experienced a quick power surge in my PC room twice now in less than 24 hours. The breaker for that room is not tripped and power comes back on within a couple of seconds. It's also not effecting the entire room, just one half of it. The half that I have my PC connected to and other gadgets. The other side of the room where my modem/router is connected doesn't go through the power surge.

Any ideas? My PC is connected to a 8 outlet APC Power Bar.

What has changed is I've purchased a new PC case and a Hydro Series H100i V2 CPU cooler...everything else is the same.

1) Could it be that I had "allow the computer to turn off this device if not in use" setting in USB power management settings in device manager? I have recently started using the USB header on the mobo for the Corsair Link
2) Could it be that I disconnected the HDD light cable from the mobo so it's not constantly flickering due to HDD activity?
3) I checked the outlet with a voltmeter and both plugs are giving out the correct voltage...though I'm quite dumb when it comes to electricity so I'm not sure this test had any real purpose.
4) Just noticed I had accidentally plugged in green audio cable into the Mic (pink jack)...not sure if this could have caused it?

That's all I can think of, please let me know which things above I can rule out.

I'm guessing it could also be a faulty cable? I've unplugged almost everything that doesn't need to be always plugged to troubleshoot this further. Started using a new HDMI cable for my 2nd monitor...so I unplugged that for the time being also.

 

[Mr.Scott]

It's not a surge, it's a brown out.
Rooms are usually on a single breaker. If only half the room is affected you have a wiring issue in the room.
Try an outlet on the good side of the room and see if you still have a problem.

 

[Robert17]

I recently had some wiring 'get old' in my house and it nearly caused a fire. The copper wire had apparently vibrated or such over 30 years to the point where it broke, melted the insulation and caused much mayhem. After inspecting every outlet (removed the outlet, testing the wires during a visual inspection) we found two more issues. Stuff gets old.

 

[Pepi93]

Well I hope it's not what either of you said. I live in a condo and it is more than 30 years old. I do have another theory so let me know what you think.

As I mentioned above, I unplugged the HDD 2 prong cable from the motherboard to not see the HDD light flicker non stop. What I didn't do is make sure this two prong wire is not touching the inside of the case (metal)...while the other wire for the power button is still connected.

Could this be it? I've since plugged it back in.

This is my first piece of testing before I try the other side of the room. Also, if it was a breaker/wiring issue, wouldn't the breaker trip?

 

[Lochekey]

I would test to see if that room actually is one circuit or two. I know when we used to do wiring we would wire 1 and a half rooms per circuit sometimes depending on room size, so it is possible to have 2 separate circuits in a room. If you only have one circuit in the room then it is definitely a wiring issue. If you have 2 circuits in the room then you can diagnose from there.


As to the breaker depending on the cause of the surge/brown out the breaker will not do anything.

 

[Mr.Scott]

As I mentioned above, I unplugged the HDD 2 prong cable from the motherboard to not see the HDD light flicker non stop. What I didn't do is make sure this two prong wire is not touching the inside of the case (metal)...while the other wire for the power button is still connected.

Could this be it? I've since plugged it back in.

No.
Even if the was enough juice it that lead, if it shorted it would be confined to , at most, tripping the protection circuit in the PSU which would only affect your rig, not half the room.

 

[Lochekey]

Easiest thing to do to see if it is a circuit issue or a device issue is plug the computer in somewhere else and then put a comparable load on the questionable circuit. If the problem follows the computer then the issue is there. If the problem is the circuit it should repeat itself on the new load. I would suggest running an extension cord for the computer instead of moving it to save your self some hassle.

 

[trents]

Well I hope it's not what either of you said. I live in a condo and it is more than 30 years old. I do have another theory so let me know what you think.

As I mentioned above, I unplugged the HDD 2 prong cable from the motherboard to not see the HDD light flicker non stop. What I didn't do is make sure this two prong wire is not touching the inside of the case (metal)...while the other wire for the power button is still connected.

Could this be it? I've since plugged it back in.

This is my first piece of testing before I try the other side of the room. Also, if it was a breaker/wiring issue, wouldn't the breaker trip?

So you are talking about the HD LED front panel connector. Usually, the wires are terminated in a plastic housing but for various reasons the ends of the wires may be bare. If they are bare, care needs to be taken to make sure they don't contact each other or another circuit component but if care is taken they can still be used that way. But I'm with the rest of the responders, my larger concern is for the safety and integrity of your household wiring. Do you own the condo or are you a renter with a landlord? Someone needs to get an electrician out there to check the building's circuitry.

Having said all that, front panel LED connectors grounding out will not cause a power brownout in the room. I guess I don't really know what your question is. Has this had some negative affect on the PC itself or are you just trying to figure out if the front panel connector issue caused the brownout?

 

[Pepi93]

We own the condo...

Also, apologies but it turns out the entire room is written to one breaker...now I'm not 100% sure that half or the entire room experienced the brownout...

What should my step 1,2,3 be at this point?

 

[Pepi93]

So you are talking about the HD LED front panel connector. Usually, the wires are terminated in a plastic housing but for various reasons the ends of the wires may be bare. If they are bare, care needs to be taken to make sure they don't contact each other or another circuit component but if care is taken they can still be used that way. But I'm with the rest of the responders, my larger concern is for the safety and integrity of your household wiring. Do you own the condo or are you a renter with a landlord? Someone needs to get an electrician out there to check the building's circuitry.

Having said all that, front panel LED connectors grounding out will not cause a power brownout in the room. I guess I don't really know what your question is. Has this had some negative affect on the PC itself or are you just trying to figure out if the front panel connector issue caused the brownout?

I was trying to figure out if the front panel connector caused the burnout. Sorry for not being clear.

I spoke with an old friend who's an electrician and he suggested that I first take access each individual receptacle and check for any lose wires...I'll be doing that tomorrow at first light and once I go to bed I'll be turning that particular breaker off.

Thank you to all who helped me with this. I'll update once I know more.

 

[Pepi93]

Pulled out all plugs from both rooms (one breaker) and found no visible defects to wires, or loose wires etc...all looked structurally sound. All but the light switches for each room had a ground wire also.
I did find one receptacle loose in the wall but this one was in another room and not the one which gave me the brownout...

 

[trents]

You need to get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instr...1514931124&sr=8-3&keywords=wall+outlet+tester

 

[Pepi93]

You need to get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instr...1514931124&sr=8-3&keywords=wall+outlet+tester

This just tells me if the polarization is correct? I checked all that today and it is.

 

[trents]

This just tells me if the polarization is correct? I checked all that today and it is.

Mostly, yes. But if there were a wire making poor/intermittent contact then the LEDs would flicker.

 

[rainforestnomad]

I've experienced a quick power surge in my PC room twice now in less than 24 hours. The breaker for that room is not tripped and power comes back on within a couple of seconds. It's also not effecting the entire room, just one half of it. The half that I have my PC connected to and other gadgets. The other side of the room where my modem/router is connected doesn't go through the power surge.

Any ideas? My PC is connected to a 8 outlet APC Power Bar.

What has changed is I've purchased a new PC case and a Hydro Series H100i V2 CPU cooler...everything else is the same.

1) Could it be that I had "allow the computer to turn off this device if not in use" setting in USB power management settings in device manager? I have recently started using the USB header on the mobo for the Corsair Link
2) Could it be that I disconnected the HDD light cable from the mobo so it's not constantly flickering due to HDD activity?
3) I checked the outlet with a voltmeter and both plugs are giving out the correct voltage...though I'm quite dumb when it comes to electricity so I'm not sure this test had any real purpose.
4) Just noticed I had accidentally plugged in green audio cable into the Mic (pink jack)...not sure if this could have caused it?

That's all I can think of, please let me know which things above I can rule out.

I'm guessing it could also be a faulty cable? I've unplugged almost everything that doesn't need to be always plugged to troubleshoot this further. Started using a new HDMI cable for my 2nd monitor...so I unplugged that for the time being also.

Any chance your power bar is the problem? It will have an internal protection that could be going faulty

 

[Pepi93]

Not sure about the power bar, but I haven't experienced the problem since the day I created this thread. Also, I did change the power bar since but not because of the "problem", I just wanted a new one with USB charging ports. Costco had a 3 pack Cyberpower set so I grabbed it.

 

[Pepi93]

Still clear without the original issue...not sure what caused it at this point.

Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[Robert17]

Sidebar related: I recently cleaned my PCs and changed out some fans, all in my home office. I have a pet gate at my office door which I had left open during one of my visits to the shop where my air compressor resides. Once I brought that unit back into the office and re-attached all cabling that PC wouldn't start at all. I spent 15 minutes reconnecting all cables, checking internally as well. Got to the point of tracing back to the surge protector to find that one of my pups had flipped the switch to Off (saw him sniffing around there as I walked back into the office, but thought benignly of it). Sometimes it's the simple little things that will challenge as much as the mega-issues.