Today the Electrical Company is cutting off our Electricity for about 3 hours, I am in a Trailer, is it better to turn off computer and unplug or is it OK to just cut off at the surge protector plug in? I use to think that turning it off was sufficient, but beginning to wonder because a friend of mine had a (usb) or hub or some part,that would not be recognized by windows or the computer and they had her turn off the computer and unplug it for 3 min then plug it back in and turn on and it recognised the part so now thinking it is best to unplug totally from wall?

The right way is turn off all electronic equipment including PC then unplug the power surge from the wall. This will protect the equipment from possible damage when power is suddenly turned back on & there may be a surge. i_Xp/VistaUser

Thanks Xp User, you come to the rescue again seems like I should just address you personally, you have helped so many people, thanks again.

ATX mboards are always powered by ATX power supplies in some places as long as live AC is being supplied to the computer's power supply, even when Windows is Shut Down or in Standby or Hibernate modes, and even if you have no drives at all installed. Turning off the switch on a power bar or surge protector or whatever is between the computer and the wall AC connection removes the live AC, but the case is still grounded through the power cord to the computer if it is still plugged in via it's grounded cord. Some surge protection devices do not have protection on the ground circuit, so a computer could still be damaged by a surge or spike in that case, and my brother had a power failure kill his computer power supply despite him having a surge protecor that had all protected. To be safest unplug it.

I put every computer on power strips. The wall warts and all go on it. Each and every time I shutdown the system the power strip master is turned off. It saves energy. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.