power strips and water damage

[Natorgator]

Long story short, I'm on vacation and my apartment at home got water damage when the unit above mine flooded due to a water line breaking. I had a lot of power strips and whatnot on the floor, including the ones powering my xbox and computer. If those shorted out due to water, would my computer and xbox actually be ok, and work fine if I replace the strips? I left everything turned off but I didn't turn off the power strip itself.

[Count Chocula]

If you're lucky, the circuit breakers on the power strips opened up and saved your computer's and XBox's power supplies. If you're not lucky, you lost their power supplies too since they're always on.

The best way to find out is to plug them into a wall outlet and see if they power up.

[Natorgator]

Thanks. I figure the power brick on the xbox is toast. I don't really mind replacing the power supply in my computer, and was mostly worried about its data. It would have been protected from a collapsing ceiling though, plus it sits about 6 inches off the floor.

[Count Chocula]

Your data should be fine. The PC's power supply won't send juice to the hard drive without you pushing the "On" soft switch, and if the power supply did short out it would be on the PS input side.

[Natorgator]

Good to hear! It's what I figured, but needed to hear from others too since I am a little freaked about how much damage there probably is.

[Netko]

Most of the time, at least if the PSU is any good, a power supply going out will not take the components with it, even if the problem happens while the computer is active. I've actually survived one going out movie-pyrotechnics style, and despite the theory of white smoke being once again proven, everything else survived without a hitch.