Sunday's earthquake may not have generated a damaging tsunami, but problems caused by power surges following the islandwide blackout have led to a wave of calls to computer repair shops across O'ahu.

James Kerr, president of Super Geeks, said the volume of business has quadrupled at his computer repair shop in the two days since the earthquake and power outage. He said his South King Street company typically receives a phone call every 15 minutes, but he said the phones have been busy with computer owners saying they've suffered some damage and needed repairs.

"Everything was down Sunday, we didn't see any business then. But when it started coming back up and people started turning on their computers or computer networks, that's when the problem started," Kerr said.

Two shelves at the Super Geek shop yesterday were filled with computers that needed to be fixed. Customers also filed in throughout the day, lugging laptops, hard drives and other computer parts.

At Best Buy on Alakawa Street, the company's Geek Squad repair service was running full throttle yesterday. The store was considering bringing in additional technicians — dubbed "double agents" — from Los Angeles to keep up with the demand for service, said Tom Luiz, operations manager.

"It's hard to put a number on it, but I would say that right now my agents are booked out to 8 o'clock tonight and that's just for today," Luiz said yesterday. "We're starting to make arrangements for the rest of the calls coming in."

Kerr said the primary problem so far has been with power supply boxes in the computers. He said many were damaged by power surges when the electricity was turned on.

"In most cases it's a cheap fix — $50 to $60 for the part," Kerr said. But he said some people are having problems with their computer's motherboard, which requires more expensive repairs, and some people have reported losing data.

Dave Davis stopped by Super Geeks yesterday afternoon to pick up a computer that had been damaged Sunday. Davis is general manager of Environmental Services Network and said only one of his company's eight computers was affected.

"When the electricity came back on, I didn't think that I was going to have to worry about the power surge with the power strip," Davis said. "Maybe that helped prevent other damage, but it still tripped the breaker."

The problem with Davis' computer was traced to the power supply, which was a relief to Davis.

"If they couldn't fix it, they were going to recover my data so I could buy a new computer," Davis said.

Kerr cautioned computer owners that power strips and surge protectors don't always work. He said the best thing to do in the event of a power outage is shut down a computer and unplug everything. Consumers can also consider purchasing an "uninterrupted power supply," which allows a computer to operate on backup battery power from 30 minutes to 30 hours.

Kerr also said he expects a second wave of problems once more computer owners turn on their equipment and realize they are missing data.

"I'm hoping that that's not an issue. We'll know more in a couple of days," he said.

Anyone who may have suffered damage to electronic equipment also can file a claim with Hawaiian Electric Co. HECO spokesman Jose Dizon, said each claim will be evaluated to determine if it qualifies for reimbursement.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.