[Drako]

This is a very odd issue I had with my computer, and I've never encountered it before. But I'm 99% sure I know the source of the issue now. I just wanted to share my experience with everyone.

This all started Monday at around 2 AM. For absolutely no reason I lost power to my mouse, keyboard, and at least my HDD. I'm not sure about my SSD though, since I don't have a status indicator for it. After I lost power to those devices, I looked to my monitor, and it looked like everything was normal because the YouTube video I had been watching was still playing. I then went through a bunch of troubleshooting steps that I knew and that I could find online. After every single one of those steps failed I figured I was just wasting my time, so I went to bed.

Tuesday rolled around and the same exact thing happened to me, the only difference was I lost power to the same devices at around 1:30 AM. So naturally I just got pissed off and immediatly went to bed.

Now lastly we have Wednesday. Once again, I lost power to the same devices at around 1:30 AM. So this was a weird pattern that I noticed. And just for the hell of it I went through some troubleshooting again. I reset my CMOS battery, left all of my USB devices unplugged, changed BIOS settings, I used different outlets, but the same thing was happening. So I realized the only thing that could be causing this was the electrical infrastructure in my area.

Now I'm not an electrical engineer, but I believe the cold weather combined with the shit electricity in my town don't mix well. So as it gets colder I can only assume this is going to get worse over time. In about a week it should start warming up again, which I hope remedies this issue. So until then I'll just be going to bed at a decent time.

[Skullmeat]

Windows has a power save feature that will turn off USB devices when they are not in use, as well as your HDD. I would check that first. It's unlikely that issues with the power grid would effect your devices and not the PC itself. Go to Control Panel > View by Large Icons > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > USB Settings > USB selective suspend setting and switch it to disabled.



Try that and see if it helps.

[mothered]

So I realized the only thing that could be causing this was the electrical infrastructure in my area.

If It's Isolated to the said devices, then I don't believe that's the Issue.

Did you lose power to any other device/appliance etc?

[Drako]

Windows has a power save feature that will turn off USB devices when they are not in use, as well as your HDD. I would check that first. It's unlikely that issues with the power grid would effect your devices and not the PC itself. Go to Control Panel > View by Large Icons > Power Options > Change Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Settings > USB Settings > USB selective suspend setting and switch it to disabled.



Try that and see if it helps.

I didn't have the issue Thursday night. I haven't been able to use my computer since then, so I'm not sure if the issue has picked back up again or not.

I did check my power plan settings and USB selective suspend was on, so maybe it had something to do with my problem. It's now disabled.

So I realized the only thing that could be causing this was the electrical infrastructure in my area.

If It's Isolated to the said devices, then I don't believe that's the Issue.

Did you lose power to any other device/appliance etc?

I have an electrical usage meter now, so later tonight at around 1:00 AM I'll plug in the meter and see if my voltage drops at all.

And from what I can tell I haven't lost any power to anything else around my house. I've had my TV on while I lost power to the devices connected to my computer, and the TV would still be running. But of course TVs are a bit more forgiving when it comes to electrical spikes or decreases. But that was the only other appliance I had on in my room at the time.

[mothered]

I have an electrical usage meter now, so later tonight at around 1:00 AM I'll plug in the meter and see if my voltage drops at all.

And from what I can tell I haven't lost any power to anything else around my house. I've had my TV on while I lost power to the devices connected to my computer, and the TV would still be running. But of course TVs are a bit more forgiving when it comes to electrical spikes or decreases. But that was the only other appliance I had on in my room at the time.

It may well be an Isolated Issue with your PC.

I'm very Interested to read the exact cause, so please reply with your findings pertaining to the electrical usage meter.

[Drako]

I have an electrical usage meter now, so later tonight at around 1:00 AM I'll plug in the meter and see if my voltage drops at all.

And from what I can tell I haven't lost any power to anything else around my house. I've had my TV on while I lost power to the devices connected to my computer, and the TV would still be running. But of course TVs are a bit more forgiving when it comes to electrical spikes or decreases. But that was the only other appliance I had on in my room at the time.

It may well be an Isolated Issue with your PC.

I'm very Interested to read the exact cause, so please reply with your findings pertaining to the electrical usage meter.

It's almost 3:00 AM and I haven't had any problems. The temperatures have risen in my area, and there hasn't been any rain either. That can't completely confirm my suspicion of this being an electrical grid issue. It could just be a coincidence, and It's still possible that I really do have an issue with my computer. Only time will tell I guess.

As for the meter it's working so far. Had to read the instructions properly because I had it set to 'VA' which is volt-amps instead of 'V' which is just voltage. It's a little strange to see what you think is almost 300 Volts on a 15 Amp outlet. But since I corrected the setting I've seen a constant 127 Volts.

[mothered]

It could just be a coincidence, and It's still possible that I really do have an issue with my computer. Only time will tell I guess.

I've just reread your opening post, and noticed that It happened at least three times- all roughly around the same time each night.

A coincidence Is possible, but the circumstances suggest otherwise. Unless there's some sort of event running In the background of your PC that triggers It.

As for the meter it's working so far. Had to read the instructions properly because I had it set to 'VA' which is volt-amps instead of 'V' which is just voltage. It's a little strange to see what you think is almost 300 Volts on a 15 Amp outlet. But since I corrected the setting I've seen a constant 127 Volts.

It's good you have the meter to monitor the power.

It makes It a lot easier to narrow down the cause.

[Jiggly]

I'm really curious about the outcome for this. What an unusual problem. I'm glad you're able to monitor at the moment.

Keep us updated on what you find!

[Drako]

I think I narrowed down my problem to my HDD. Now I seem to be losing power to only my HDD. When this actually happens I hear a high pitched noise coming out of the drive, and Windows then slowly starts to lockup. Before the drive was starting to lockup I was able to install Crystal Disk Info. I checked how many active hours there were on the drive, and there are nearly 10,000 on it. And that's enough time for a drive failure.

I'll be cloning my whole drive over to another HDD to give myself some time to buy an SSD. I really hope this solves my problem.

[mothered]

I think I narrowed down my problem to my HDD. Now I seem to be losing power to only my HDD. When this actually happens I hear a high pitched noise coming out of the drive, and Windows then slowly starts to lockup. Before the drive was starting to lockup I was able to install Crystal Disk Info. I checked how many active hours there were on the drive, and there are nearly 10,000 on it. And that's enough time for a drive failure.

I'll be cloning my whole drive over to another HDD to give myself some time to buy an SSD. I really hope this solves my problem.

CrystalDiskInfo Is a powerful tool to see exactly what's going on with your drive.

I'm very Interested to read whether the SSD will solve the Issue.