Weird power problem

So I'm on a bus on a trip, and it has power outlets. I plugged my computer in and was surprised to find that when plugged in, my headphones would make a distinct static noise. It would also vary depending on whether or not I was touching my laptop, the headphones, or any other surface. Upon restarting my computer, it claimed it failed and started some kind of automatic fix. I cancelled it, started the computer, and the theme and look was very different, and my touchpad wouldn't work.

Is the outlet causing any kind of permanent damage to my laptop? I've stopped using it for now. Is there some sort of current going through it? Any idea? Thanks

 

Maybe the vibration from the bus damaged the harddrive? I suppose power surges could do some damage like that though. Do you remember what it was trying to fix?

 

Not sure. But I'm leaning towards the headphones as a problem. They have been acting up recently. It's that common problem where one side slowly goes out unless you hold it in a right position. Tried other earbuds and there was no problem. Maybe the error was just coincidence.

 

It's possible the two issues are not related, but the error was something you should look into as soon as possible. Sounds to me like the computer was subjected to some kind of surge or electrical issue for you to have the static when you touched the computer.

 

That problem is due to a frayed wire in the headphone jack usually near the base of the jack. The computer wouldn't detect that problem and would therefore not try and fix it. THe most a computer would do is try to reinstall a plug and play driver of a device connected to a jack and that would be if the whole connection failed. In short, it isn't the headphones fault.

Also when your computer is attempting to correct an error the smart thing to do is usually let it finish, many times it is overwriting items in its OS registry because they are corrupted and stopping your computer by doing a hard reboot can lead to further damage and corruption.

Also the power on busses and other automobiles through converters is notorious for fluctuating current, and it could have been a problem with a short but that is highly unlikely, because if it was a power problem it would have affected the mobo before the hdds if we are considering probability. My guess is that it was a corrupted file in the registry and the computer restarted in safe mode, or your user file was damaged and restored to a default.

EDIT: Upon further reading noting that the touchpad failed to work, it was likely a software issue in the OS and the touchpad needs drivers reinstalled. It isn't the outlet, because your computer would revert to battery mode if the current fluctuated too much while on the bus if the power supply went to low and if it went to high it would automatically shut down due to the surge and the sensors on the processor and gpu would detect overvoltage and shutdown to prevent damage. The shorts that do the major comp frying damage are on groundlines due to a transformer failure or other addition of current that is so great it overwhelms the pc, I doubt the bus's alternator could output enough power to do something like that. In short this sounds like a software problem and it also sounds like your headphones are damaged due to usage and you should get some new ones.

 

^My mind just exploded.

 

Hahaha yeaaa. Pretty intense explanation! But thank you, it was very informative. Another weird thing I don't know if I mentioned, the headphones would make the buzzing noise (changing depending on what I touched) when the computer was fully turned off.

In the end, I broke the headphones after one side completely stopped working. All seems well with my laptop at this point. Are there any types of tests I can do to examine the integrity of my system after whatever happened?

 

Open command prompt as an administrator and type sfc /scannow and it will scan your operating system for corrupted files and attempt to repair them, also right click my computer under the start menu hit properties and click on the hardware tab, if anything is wrong hardware wise it will have a warning sing by the hardware name.

 

So I did, and it found some corrupted files but couldn't fix them all. I can't comprehend the gigantic log it sent me. What should I do to begin the process of fixing these corrupted files?

 

To fix the corrupted files you would have to attempt a repair installation or reinstall the OS completely. Reinstalling the os would lead to you losing some files on that partition if they werent backed up, the repair installation is your best bet. Also if the system seems to be running well even with the corrupted files you should be fine for now, just back your system up when you get the chance, and then do a reinstall from there.

 

Thread closed due to arguing; I deleted a number of posts.

@OP: if you didn't get your question answered, feel free to start a new thread.