Actually, surge protectors/power strips can cause damage. If you go over the amp allowence on the protector you will have problems. Most surge protectors/power strips have 10-15 amps and if you have multiple appliances hooked up into the protector you can cause damage if you use too many amps. But I honestly doubt it caused you any damage, unless you have your xbox hooked up to the same power strip as a mini fridge or a desktop fan (things with motors use tons of amps)... Say if you just have like a Tv, xbox, dvd player, router, and little stuff like that you should not have any problems at all, though I would suggest not to overload it and give the strip like 3 or so amps to breathe with. Also try not to boot multiple appliances up at once as they all use alot more amps at start than they do after running for a bit.
Also you most likely do NOT have a surge protector but a power strip, its very common to mistake power strips for surge protectors as they look pretty much the same and even some manufacturers list them incorrectly but they are very different. Surge Protectors are great if you actually get one that protects you from storms and surge influxes from bad AC units, but dont rely on your little power strip to do anything..infact its most likely safer just to plug it into the wall then it is a regular power strip as power strips are known to cause noise to audio/video equipment and slow down networks. Power strips do nothing except add ports.
And a final note, most new appliances are practically immune to "common mode" surges including the xbox 360 and a surge protector is only usefull to protect it from lightning storms, but honestly, you should unplug your stuff during a storm anyways.
Ohh yea and never daisy chain.
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