[SOLVED] Sudden power loss to PC from surge protector

[Loadhaul]

Hi all.

Just encountered another sudden loss of power to my 6 month old PC (all new components) I built, I'm not sure if this issue is being caused by my PSU.
This issue causes a sudden loss of power for approximately 1-2 seconds of every thing that I have connected to my surge protector, including my monitor, a Phillips Hue light strip and my PC. I'm not entirely sure whether a PC can cause a surge protector to 'trip', I would appreciate if someone could enlighten me on that. Also wondering if this is coincidental and the surge protector is doing its job as there may have been some sort of voltage sag from the mains.

It doesn't seem to trip a breaker in the house, nor seem to affect other appliances such as the TV.
I believe it could be that the surge protector has grounded the power for a split second as for what ever reason, or a faulty PSU/component has some how caused the surge protector to trip.
The surge protector is rated at 2400W and 6/8 sockets are populated with every item I have including my PC monitor etc.
My house and wiring is approximately 13-14 years old currently.
The surge protector is Belkin Pro 4000 8 way surge protector which is a decent model here in Australia (6 months old). This surge protector has some sort of inrush current protection which may cause some sort of instability, i'm not entirely sure.

It doesn't seem to happen in any sort of circumstances, when it happened today I was playing a light game/sim (Prepar3D) which was not utilising my full GPU/CPU as I had the FPS limited quite low which can be easily handled by my specs (only running on a single core too).
On the other two occurrences I was browsing Google Chrome.
Event Viewer spits out the classic Kernel Power event 41 and nothing else...

I checked my BIOS for PSU voltage states, all returned to be absolutely perfect on the 3.3v, 5V and 12V power rails.
Vcore was also perfectly fine at 1.225V as set as a manual overclock at 4.8GHz. (The first loss of power occurred BEFORE i had the system overclocked, I did attempt extensive stability testing for many hours, but I could not get the system to suddenly lose power/BSOD).
I used HWinfo to verify that things didn't go out of norm when gaming, which they didn't either.

Temps:
Idle: 30C-35C
P95: 60C-70C
Gaming: 40C-50C

PC Specs:
MB: Asus XI Hero
CPU: I7 9700K
GPU: ASUS RTX 2080
RAM: Corsair 16GB 3200MHz
PSU: Corsair RM850X

Thanks in advance.

 

[Ralston18]

First:

New PC: Power down, unplug, open the case, and verify that all cables, cards, RAM, jumpers, etc. are fully and firmly seated.

Something may a crept loose during the last 6 months due to expansion and contraction.

Second:

Is the surge protector actually tripping? Does not appear so as you would need to reset the breaker and start all attached devices up again.

An "outage" of 1 -2 seconds is more of sag or "brownout".

Also remember that surge protectors degrade over time. They can only absorb a certain amount of damage due to surges etc. and then become ineffective as protection per se. And who knows what all else may happen as a result....

What are all the devices plugged into the surge protector?

Many surge protectors, even the good brand names, are made as cheaply as possible. Plus the Belkin may have been assembled someplace where component quality and assembly inspections were not a high priority.

Plus it appears your surge protector may be overloaded. Running at "max" wattage will only shorten the designed EOL (End of Life).

If there is a sudden draw then that can appear as a surge and the surge protector may respond but not to the full point of tripping.

Total up the load being place on the surge protector. Start with the computer's components - total up component wattages and add 25%.

Then do the same for all other items plugged into the surge protector.

Try working/testing for awhile without a few of those devices connected. Determine if the problems continue.

Then start adding devices back one at a time. Again determine when the problem starts re-occurring. May be some particular combination of devices.

 

[Loadhaul]

First:

New PC: Power down, unplug, open the case, and verify that all cables, cards, RAM, jumpers, etc. are fully and firmly seated.

Something may a crept loose during the last 6 months due to expansion and contraction.

Second:

Is the surge protector actually tripping? Does not appear so as you would need to reset the breaker and start all attached devices up again.

An "outage" of 1 -2 seconds is more of sag or "brownout".

Also remember that surge protectors degrade over time. They can only absorb a certain amount of damage due to surges etc. and then become ineffective as protection per se. And who knows what all else may happen as a result....

What are all the devices plugged into the surge protector?

Many surge protectors, even the good brand names, are made as cheaply as possible. Plus the Belkin may have been assembled someplace where component quality and assembly inspections were not a high priority.

Plus it appears your surge protector may be overloaded. Running at "max" wattage will only shorten the designed EOL (End of Life).

If there is a sudden draw then that can appear as a surge and the surge protector may respond but not to the full point of tripping.

Total up the load being place on the surge protector. Start with the computer's components - total up component wattages and add 25%.

Then do the same for all other items plugged into the surge protector.

Try working/testing for awhile without a few of those devices connected. Determine if the problems continue.

Then start adding devices back one at a time. Again determine when the problem starts re-occurring. May be some particular combination of devices.

Thanks for your advice.

I verified everything in the PC in terms and it all seems fine. Yes it isn’t a trip of the breaker, but it seems like there is some sort of interruption from either the mains or an issue with the surge protector itself. Is it possible that a PSU issue could cause the surge protector or mains to momentarily cut power and therefore turn everything else off connected to it? Bare in mind everything looses power and not just the PC. We did have a similar issue the other week with a brown out which caused everything in the house to loose power for a few seconds, but didn’t trip a breaker either and was apparently felt throughout the area. When it happened yesterday It was raining at the time, but it was only light rain with no storms around (I always unplug with storms).

 

[Ralston18]

If the PSU shorts out (which basically means that the electrical current finds a shorter path outside of the designed flowpaths) then there will be a rush of electrons to go that route. Electrons always want to go to a "less crowded" place and the earth is just that. Referred to as "earthing" or "grounding".

The resulting flows can and do cause the wires and affected components to heat up to the point where fires can start.

So for safety purposes, electrical circuits use fuses and breakers that will detect and (if functioning correctly) interrupt that current flow. There are people who have knowingly and unknowingly removed or bypassed such protections. Some of those people are no longer with us....

Brown outs will not trip breakers but they (the lower voltages) cause electrical devices/appliances to malfunction. View it as weak batteries in a flashlight. Flashlight works but its' usefulness is limited.

But when full power is restored that can come back in a rush and then trip the breaker...

I suspect that it is more likely that the voltages going up and down within the PSU caused some internal component (designed to work in a specific voltage range) to falter. That failure would not go back to the surge protector per se unless the problem involved (as I mentioned) a short circuit.

What may be more helpful to you is a UPS - especially if your area is prone to brownouts. Ensure that your electrical circuits are protected by breakers and let them deal with surges. UPS's can also provide surge protection but damage is cumulative and at some point - no more surge protection.

Plus we all have other paths for electricity to find and take: telephone wires, coax wires, speaker/audio wires, home alarm systems, metal fences, etc. A lightning strike some distance away may find its' way into your home and electronic devices. I once saw a spark cross a room (over a bed) from a telephone jack to a power outlet on the opposite wall.

I too unplug my systems when storms are present or threatening. Or when I am going to be gone for a couple of days. As for rain - it could be causing some problem somewhere else. A breaker is tripped and the electrons then look for another path.

Cannot do much about utility crews who forever find more creative ways to send current the wrong way. But I must be fair to the crews - many areas have little or no documentation regarding where the lines are. And of course the lines get dug up, cut, connected wrong, etc....

 

[Loadhaul]

Just happened again today.
The surge protector cut power to everything for approximately 2 seconds...
Nothing in the house had any sort of interruption.
I will mention everything else needs to be turned back on manually, indicating that there is definitely power loss to the surge protector or the mains. When it occurred I was actually writing stuff up, so there shouldn't be too much demand from anything.
I am considering getting a UPS and or getting rid of this surge protector, but I'm still not sure whether a PSU issue is to blame here. Coincidentally there were storm cells about 40KM-50KM or around 25 Miles-31 Miles away, this shouldn't be closer enough to cause any sort of discharge I would at least think.