Emac has no power and won't start up

Question

I have an Emac that one morning just didn't wnat to start up any more. The LED does not light up, there is no noise, no nothing. I can neither open the CD/DVD tray. I have made sure x numbers of times that the cord is not loose and that the surge protector-powerstrtip has power. Is there anything I can do? Is this possibly a sign that the backup battery is dead? I'll be grateful for any help I can get.

Answer 1

Bernhard,
I've had the same thing happen to me with a TV set, so you're hardly alone in that sinking feeling of looking like an idiot in front of the desk person at a repair shop. The more energy-efficient a power supply is, the more sensitive it seems to be towards glitches in the voltage and/or frequency. In this case, a momentary power outage --- no more than a second or two --- is the likely culprit.
While your surge protector is likely not involved in this after all, if it's a standard MOSFET-based design and more than a few years old, go ahead and replace it anyway. MOSFET designs have a nasty habit of degrading over time and exposure to voltage spikes, losing any actual effectiveness while continuing to dispaly all's well on status LEDs.
A better choise than a surge protector is an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) such as the ones from APC. A good rule of thumb in buying a UPS is: buy as much protection as you can afford, in terms of higher energy rating and battery capacity. You can spend anyting from $40 to $200 and up. APC models rated at 750mA and up include outlets to protect a cable line, which is great protection from lightening spikes traveling down the cable line (something I discovered the hard way a couple of years back when a hit directly on the transformer at the botom of my driveway took out several TVs and VCRs). Even the low-end 350mA UPS models, through, provide great protection against momentary power outages, and local computer stores arounf here frequently use the low-end UPS models as loss-leaders on sales, which is a good time to pick up one or more (the $40 models are often on sale for $30 with sometimes an additional rebate to $20 net). Note that OS X 10.3.3 and later have support built-in to System Preferences/ Energy Saver to communicaye with a UPS over a USB line to allow graceful shutdown in cases where the power is out for more than a short time. Make sure the UPS USB line plugs directly into the Mac and not through a USB hub to avoid any potential communications glitches durting a power glitch.