Power surge?

My PC just bombed out completely leaving me with just a black screen and the music that I was playing at the time stuck in a high pitched screeching loop. Not sure what caused this to happen but I was thinking maybe a power surge? This has happened a couple of times before (several months apart). Does it sound like a hardware fault or should I just invest in a surge protector? I have no way of telling what caused it really.

Thanks for any help,
Jason.

You should have a surge protector anyway.

I know, I keep meaning to buy one. I`ll make a point of doing so this weekend.

Jason.

Make sure you do. Sounds more like a black/Brownout to me, these are more likely to cause a computer system crash. A power surge is more likely to damage the system

(Theoretically. I just thought about this and i am most likely talking crap.)

I always have my PC connected to a battery backup with surge protection and have never had any power related damage.

However, I lost a television and a stereo receiver to lightning. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

I've had the same thing happen to me on occasion as well -- all seems fine again (for months) after hitting the reset button when it happens. I am using a surge protections, and each of the few times it happened I was playing a 3D game. (which isn't very often)

My guess is that the powersupply couldn't quite keep up with the power usage demands of the PC, causing the video card or something to poop out and lock the system.

Interesting, xlsior would you mind listing your specs to see if we have any similarities?

Jason.

Sounds like a power supply problem or overheating.

450W ps, Athlon 2800+, Radeon 9600 Pro, 2*512MB RAM, 2 DVD burners, 4 harddrives.
I guess the extra drives do account for additional power use.

That shouldn't be overtaxing your PSU, unless your PSU is a cheap one?

I used to run with 4 hard drives on a 425W PSU and never had an issue, voltages were always stable (even when overclocking). Still, the problem you describe can only be either:

1) Overheating.
2) RAM, GFX card or similar not quite seated properly.
3) Overworked PSU (they do wear out, after a time).
4) Faulty motherboard component (voltage regulators and capacitors are often the first to die).
5) Software (dodgy drivers, dodgy BIOS version, you get the picture!).

**EDIT** poor quality power into the PSU can cause it to wear our a lot quicker than normal. Some cheap or faulty surge-protectors can actually output a clipped AC feed which switched-mode PSU's (just about every ATX PSU ever) do not like.

If you notice your lights fickering or dimming on occasion, best to spend £15-£20 on a really good surge protector (perhaps a Belkin model with included attached equipment guarantee).