Power surges damaged computer?

[pumkin54]

I moved into a mother-in-law addon about 2 weeks ago. It comes with a small microwave oven and a toaster oven. There is a sign on each of these warning that they cannot be used at the same time. The people who own the house said that it would cause the power to go out and I'd have to flip a switch on the the circuit breaker to get it to come back on. What they failed to tell me was that several other combinations of power use could also cause a power outage. I tried to vacuum on Saturday and the power went out. It took me three tries to figure out that I can only vacuum if everything else in the place is turned off: TV, lights, ceiling fan, everything.

My computer was plugged into a surge protector, but I don't think that was enough protection. My computer will no longer boot up. The hard drive is no longer detected. I've checked the cables and switched them out with a spare set. That didn't help. I'm going tomorrow to buy an HD enclosure to see if something is actually wrong with the HD. If it's not the HD, I'm thinking maybe the motherboard got fried?? I have no idea how to fix that.

Does anybody have any idea what might be the problem? And could it truly be the result of these power outages? I've owned this computer for about 3-4 years and have never had a problem with it until I moved into this place. The first year I had it, I upgraded the power supply, graphics card and hard drive, but that was 3 years ago and caused no problems.

Thanks for your advice in advance. I'd like to know if the problems really are a likely result of these electrical problems, because if so I might consider going after the landlord for property damage.

[liljim]

It sounds like the house needs either higher amp breakers or some of the wiring separated into multiple breakers. Theres no reason you should have to turn everything off to run a vacuum. Average vacuume these days pulls 10-12 amps, if its on a outlet coming from at least a 20 amp breaker you shouldnt have these problems unless the breaker itself is weak.

The surges could have indeed caused some damage, to what extent is nothing but trial and error from my end though. Testing the HDD as you mentioned is the best place to start though.