Lightning Surge, what should I do?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Johndagolfer
  • Start date Start date
J

Johndagolfer

Recently a thunderstorm and a nearby lightning strike, sent a surge
through my ineffective surge protectors, I have since gotten a much
better one, and fried something in my computer. After the initial
surge, it tried starting up, and now all that happens during power up
is I believe the HD trying to spin(or something else spinning). Do you
think that it's the mobo that's fried or perhaps something more
replaceable like a power supply?

John
 
Recently a thunderstorm and a nearby lightning strike, sent a surge
through my ineffective surge protectors, I have since gotten a much
better one, and fried something in my computer. After the initial
surge, it tried starting up, and now all that happens during power up
is I believe the HD trying to spin(or something else spinning). Do you
think that it's the mobo that's fried or perhaps something more
replaceable like a power supply?

John

Honestly there is no first right answer here. It could be the mb. It could
be the PS. It could even be the network card. It is not improbable that the
lightning strike comes through the telephone connection to the modem or the
dsl modem and zaps that. Many folks simply unplug a computer and forget the
telephone line. By the way no surge protector, no matter how good, will
absolutely protect one from lightning. Best practice is to unplug from the
wall along with the telephone line. If you have other computer components
available try switching the PS first with yours. If no change then it's
possibly the mb or the cpu. Just hard to say. Additionally you might try
resetting the cmos.
 
....
It could even be the network card. It is not improbable that the
lightning strike comes through the telephone connection to the
modem or the dsl modem and zaps that.

I unplug the modem before unplugging the computer. My modem wire
also goes through a surge suppressor. I haven't lost any modems in
at least five years since doing that.
 
I unplug the modem before unplugging the computer. My
modem wire also goes through a surge suppressor. I haven't
lost any modems in at least five years since doing that.

I havent lost any modems over a much longer time when not bothering to do anything.
 
(e-mail address removed) pravi:
Recently a thunderstorm and a nearby lightning strike, sent a surge
through my ineffective surge protectors, I have since gotten a much
better one, and fried something in my computer. After the initial
surge, it tried starting up, and now all that happens during power up
is I believe the HD trying to spin(or something else spinning). Do you
think that it's the mobo that's fried or perhaps something more
replaceable like a power supply?

Most surge protections will do nothing at a direct lightning strike, if
you want protection from that, install a FID fuse along with your surge
protection. Also, no surge protection will work right unless it's
properly grounded. And by "well" I mean something that eats lightning.
Make sure the ground in your power outlet is actually connected to some
grounding. Grounding onto something big and metallic that doesn't end in
the ground like real grounding should, won't help you.

All cables going into the computer should be properly protected at some
point, this included the already mentioned telephone cables, network
cables, cable or antenna TV plug for TV cards and power lines. Power
lines of all hardware connected should also be protected (try to the
very same surge protection, otherwise things might still get sparky).
Keep the wires between your surge protection and your computers short
(e.g. not wound up under the table in 10 meters of excess cabling), as
lightning has a nifty tendency to sneak into those, particularly if the
cable forms a spiral shape.

As for the computer, my usual experience with lightning is that it takes
out the motherboard. If you wish, you can try stripping your computer
down completely (you end up with the following connected only: CPU +
motherboard + PSU + internal beeper + keyboard), then listen for beeps.
If you got one beep, you're good, if you get silence, you're screwed.

If screwed, replace the PSU or motherboard, starting with the most
likely until you get it to beep.

If you hear a repetitive low beeping, your RAM is screwed. If you hear
nothing but a single high-pitched beep, your CPU is dead.

If RAM or CPU is screwed, do try reseating it first!

If good, you'll hear a wild series of beeping, attach a graphic card,
then you should get a single beep (maybe two, but certainly not many).
If you still got a series of beeps, reseat the graphic card. If you
still got a series of beeps, replace graphic card.

Once at single beep with graphic card, insert other PCI boards. If a PCI
board is fried, the computer won't boot at all. That's how you can tell
which is burnt and which is okay. Usually, however, a PCI board fries
together with it's slot... when a bad PCI board is in a bad slot, the
computer will boot, but the card will not be detected nor functional.

As for the diagnostic of the peripherals such as floppy, CD/DVD and disk
drives, the diagnostics should be performed automatically by the BIOS
boot program (also known as POST: Power-on Self Test), if anything is
wrong with the onboard electronics or otherwise, POST will let you know
and tell you all about it on screen.

Good luck! :)

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(e-mail address removed) pravi:

Most surge protections will do nothing at a direct lightning strike, if
you want protection from that, install a FID fuse along with your surge
protection. Also, no surge protection will work right unless it's
properly grounded. And by "well" I mean something that eats lightning.
Make sure the ground in your power outlet is actually connected to some
grounding. Grounding onto something big and metallic that doesn't end in
the ground like real grounding should, won't help you.

All cables going into the computer should be properly protected at some
point, this included the already mentioned telephone cables, network
cables, cable or antenna TV plug for TV cards and power lines. Power
lines of all hardware connected should also be protected (try to the
very same surge protection, otherwise things might still get sparky).
Keep the wires between your surge protection and your computers short
(e.g. not wound up under the table in 10 meters of excess cabling), as
lightning has a nifty tendency to sneak into those, particularly if the
cable forms a spiral shape.

As for the computer, my usual experience with lightning is that it takes
out the motherboard. If you wish, you can try stripping your computer
down completely (you end up with the following connected only: CPU +
motherboard + PSU + internal beeper + keyboard), then listen for beeps.
If you got one beep, you're good, if you get silence, you're screwed.

If screwed, replace the PSU or motherboard, starting with the most
likely until you get it to beep.

If you hear a repetitive low beeping, your RAM is screwed. If you hear
nothing but a single high-pitched beep, your CPU is dead.

If RAM or CPU is screwed, do try reseating it first!

If good, you'll hear a wild series of beeping, attach a graphic card,
then you should get a single beep (maybe two, but certainly not many).
If you still got a series of beeps, reseat the graphic card. If you
still got a series of beeps, replace graphic card.

Once at single beep with graphic card, insert other PCI boards. If a PCI
board is fried, the computer won't boot at all. That's how you can tell
which is burnt and which is okay. Usually, however, a PCI board fries
together with it's slot... when a bad PCI board is in a bad slot, the
computer will boot, but the card will not be detected nor functional.

As for the diagnostic of the peripherals such as floppy, CD/DVD and disk
drives, the diagnostics should be performed automatically by the BIOS
boot program (also known as POST: Power-on Self Test), if anything is
wrong with the onboard electronics or otherwise, POST will let you know
and tell you all about it on screen.

Good luck! :)

calling w_tom...
 
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