atari2600land's Blog

Brownout?

 

A typical PSU will usually operate just fine at 90v, sometimes less, while other devices may not.

More likely you had a quick hiccup in the power. Even a half-a-second is enough to reset most digital clocks, but it's not enough to discharge the capacitors in a computer's PSU. Thus the result is that your clocks will all be flashing, but your computer will still be running.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. The power grid near you probably lost a switching station and rerouted through a backup. (Stupid squirrels; always running into the power stations...) That creates a little power hiccup, but takes less than a second for the power to be rerouted.

At my house there's an order to what resets during a power outage. The clock on the stove resets if the lights even dim, while the VCRs will handle being off power for minutes or more. My PC is somewhat in the middle, it restarts if the lights go out for more than a second.