Please explain: Unplugging one power cord caused the other laptop shutdown

I had had two laptops plugged into the same surge protector (which have 2 outlets). One of the laptop was on--I was using it; the other one had been turned off, and I removed it, leaving only its AC adapter and cord remaining plugged on the surge protector. Then, as I went on to unplug this AC adapter from the surge protector, the laptop that I was using was suddently shut down. I noticed this because I seem to have heard a click sound though not sure if it's from the laptop or not. I turned back to look at the laptop, it's completely off, but the AC power indicator was on (perhaps it was off just for a second). I turned my laptop on and things are back to normal.

Could there be something wrong with the internals of the surge protector, so that when unplugging an adapter from one outlet, the power of the other outlet is cut off? I have used this surge protector for a very long time and did the same procedures many times, but this was the first time it happened.

Anyone can explain the problem? Is it not a good idea to plug two things into the same surge protector?

 

See if you can reproduce the problem? If it happens consistently, there's definitely something going on... if it only happens/happened once, then it was probably just some sort of fluke.

 

Sure you didn't hit the power or sleep button on the laptop while reaching down to unplug the AC? I used to have keyboard with a protruberant sleep button...Just grazing the top of the keyboard would put my computer to sleep (And since sleep mode works so poorly on desktops with older Microsoft OSes, always had to reboot afterwards).

 

Oh I'm 500% sure! It's impossible for me to touch the power button of the laptop in use--it's on another table. Besides, it's not sleep, its was completely shut down abruptly, just a blink of eye when I unplugged the power cord of the other laptop (that laptop was not even there, just the adapter and cord).

 

Sometimes when unplugging something from a surge protector I hit that all to convienetly placed power switch on the power bar.

If you didnt do that, yes there is a chance that there is a weak connection in the power bar and when you unplugged the one device it broke the bridged connection to the other outlet, but that would be hard to do and a bad design. You probably would have seen blue/orange sparks if that was the case.

If you do find thats a issue I would throw away that power bar and get a new one. Also why did the laptop shut down just because it was unplugged for a second? Does it not have a battery?

 

No, my surge protector does not have a power switch. I didn't see any sparks. I didn't have battery in the laptop, that's why it shut down completely.

 

most likely the power strip is bad. what brand and how old is it? my guess is that unplugging the other power adapter caused a change in voltage or something like that and your laptop shut it self off to protect itself.

 

It's a Belkin, about 2 years.