New, with troubles

Hi, this is my first foray into Mac Forums, so hello.

I have a Mac PowerPC and we had a powersurge last night. I have a pretty decent surge protector (battery back-up, etc.), but when I came down in the morning the surge had been tripped off. When I turned the surge protector back on my Mac started immediately--without me touching the power button. And the monitor doesn't appear to be on. I push the power button on the side of the monitor, but there is no response. I unplugged my Mac, and when I plugged it back in it, again, immediately turned itself on, and, again, with a black monitor... any suggestions??

Welcome to the Mac forums!

Power surge protectors and backup UPS units don't always protect electronic equipment from power line spikes caused by thunderstorms and lightning strikes. If you live in an area susceptible to severe weather, it's best to unplug all electronic equipment.

Try attaching another monitor to your PowerPC machine (you should tell us which Mac you have - year and model) to see if you can get video. Post back the results.

Regards.

Hope it didn't fry the monitor, but sure sounds like that's a possibility. If another monitor works, well, that one is toast. If that's the case, and it's under warranty, I'm curious about whether or not weather is covered, ya know?

There are different levels of power surge protectors. You have to look at how many joules it protects. The higher the better. Some surge protectors hardly do any protection and create a false sense of security. Also if your surge protector gets tripped then you should replace it with another because it is no longer at full health and may not protect you the next time. Go to HowStuffWorks "Surge Protector Ratings" to get advice on picking a good surge protector.

From what you are describing it sounds like just your monitor became damaged since your computer is powering up. As mentioned by others try connecting it to another monitor. You won't know if your computer is okay until you do so.

thanks

thanks for everyone's input. I am going to grab a friend's monitor and see what happens... *crosses fingers* I hope it is just a blown out monitor...

Do keep us posted on what the result is with the other monitor. I hope that solves it for you.

Just curious, was the Surge caused by a storm?

oddly no

no, i still don't know what caused the surge. i woke up to see my alarm clock furiously blinking 12:00 at me. and the same surge also blew out an adaptor for my cable box (different outlet/wall), so it must have been quite a doosie.

and thanks again all