Power cut b0rked my pc :-(

stereo_steve

Hello all,

I'm sitting here in my house writing this on my laptop because my desktop is no longer working.

I came home last night to a dark house. For those of you that didn't experience it last night, there was an 11nhour power cut in the Dundrum/Ballinteer area last night. (From the newspaper I believe some unfortunate people in Stoneybatter were without power also)

I got up this morning before work and tried to turn on my pc, I didn't get any response. I am going to look at it properly now in a few minutes. I'm really hoping its just the power supply that is gone and not the motherboard.

My question to you guys is, how should approach this issue? Are ESB responsible for equipment that has been damage as a result of a fault in their network?

I sent them a very nice and polite email this morning but I have received no response as of yet. I'm not looking for a new pc or anything. All I want is the problem fixed. A replacement PSU or motherboard if thats the problem.

Look forward to your responses,

Steve

mikemac

Thinking of claiming damages from the ESB? Lol
I'd say the odds of you getting anything are zero.

I believe they can claim "exceptional circumstances".
For instance, I remember a thread here where someone in Clondalkin wanted to claim for spoiled food as the freezer has no power
The cause of the power cut was a fire in a substation so you can hardly expect the ESB to compensate thousands of people for every single incident.
A business is a different matter to an average customer

Shouldn't you have some sort of surge protection anyway, they're pretty cheap.

Antigone05

yeah your covered with a surge protector. put them on all pc's printers, phone lines, cable lines, tv's..so forth.

you can get them for 30quid

stereo_steve

micmclo wrote: »

Thinking of claiming damages from the ESB? Lol
I'd say the odds of you getting anything are zero.

I believe they can claim "exceptional circumstances".
For instance, I remember a thread here where someone in Clondalkin wanted to claim for spoiled food as the freezer has no power
The cause of the power cut was a fire in a substation so you can hardly expect the ESB to compensate thousands of people for every single incident.
A business is a different matter to an average customer

Shouldn't you have some sort of surge protection anyway, they're pretty cheap.

Surely thats a different issue though? Any provider of a service can withdraw their service if they wish too. So I don't think they would be responsible for spoiled food.

However, they have physically damaged my computer by sending a surge or some form of unclean electricity into my house. Surely as a professional provider of electricity they are responsible for it? They should have their own surge protection in parts of their network, such as the entrance to housing estates.

I genuinely fail to see how they are not responsible for this?!

thefinalstage

stereo_steve wrote: »

Surely thats a different issue though? Any provider of a service can withdraw their service if they wish too. So I don't think they would be responsible for spoiled food.

However, they have physically damaged my computer by sending a surge or some form of unclean electricity into my house. Surely as a professional provider of electricity they are responsible for it? They should have their own surge protection in parts of their network, such as the entrance to housing estates.

I genuinely fail to see how they are not responsible for this?!

They didn't purposely send that surge to your house to destroy your equipment. They have two different devices protecting each plug in your house. They have mains fuses protecting the distribution in your house. They can't be expected to pay if these devices fecked up. Cheap fuses? Maybe.

the_syco

Sounds like a "brown surge". Usually happens after a blackout. If your house was wired correctly, it shouldn't have happened. Blackouts have happened here in the past, and no damage has been done to my PC's.

Zaph

Check to see if your home insurance will cover this. I know you're covered for food in freezers under some policies.

More than likely if the ESB do respond to your email they will tell you that you should of had a surge protector.

jor el

stereo_steve wrote: »

I genuinely fail to see how they are not responsible for this?!

They'd only be responsible if they are complacent in the power cut (as in they knew it would happen and did nothing to prevent it).

You'd also have to prove that the power cut did actually damage the PC, this would be fairly difficult to do. Power supplies in PCs do die for various reasons and if it is just the supply then a new one will cost you about 50 euro.