Generator symptoms without a code

Two pages here start from a symptom rather than a code, for Generac standby generators that misbehave without posting an alarm number. One covers a generator that won't start, including the case where it should have started during an outage and didn't. The other covers a generator whose engine runs while the house has no power, which the page follows Generac's support article in tracing to the transfer switch, since it needs voltage from the generator and on its transfer circuit before it will move.

Each page works through the causes in the order Generac's documents give them and marks the step where a dealer has to take over.

If the controller does show a number, the error-code section is the better place to start, because the code's own page is more specific than either symptom page. Generac's portable generators are covered separately under error codes, since they signal faults through lights rather than a display.