Printers, Network Not Functional After Power Failure

When power is resumed after a power failure, electrical devices such as computers, printers, fax machines, network hubs/routers appear to switch back on properly. However you may experience problems with these devices, or the network itself.

If manually restarting some errant services does not help, power-cyling (turning off/on) these devices should restore proper function.

The following procedure is good practice even if you do not believe you are experiencing problems after a power failure, particularly if the outage was caused by wild storm activity, or if the power flicked off and on repeatedly during the outage.

When power has resumed and you believe it is stable:

• Wait for computers to fully boot (if they are configured to automatically power on), then shut them down and switch off.

• Switch off printers, fax machines and any other electrical devices.

• Switch off hubs, switches and routers.

• Switch off uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes).

• Switch off all power points at the wall.

• Wait for two minutes.

• Switch on power points.

• Switch on uninterruptible power supplies (UPSes).

• Wait for 30 seconds.

• Turn on Internet router/modem.

• Wait for 3 minutes while the router/modem initialises.

• Turn on any remaining hubs/switches.

• Turn on the server (or the main workgroup machine).

• Wait for 15 minutes while the server starts up.

• Turn on other computers and other devices.

• Wait for a further five minutes before logging in.