Can electrical outages damage computers beyond repair?

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There was an electrical outage at my dad’s. Although he had his desktop PC unplugged, when he turned it on the screen flashed that the USB connection had an overload and the computer would be shutting down in 15 seconds.

Is his computer beyond repair or what can we do to get it up and running again? He has a Dell computer and is running Vista with Internet Explorer. My knowledge is extremely limited on all things electronic and his is no better. So any help or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

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