Lightning storm - PC Dead

FUNTY · 12 Oct 2006 at 10:39

A friend of mine woke up yesterday after a bolt of lightning hit the school opposite his house. All his electricity failed and he heard a pop from his PC - but it was switched off at the time. Now it wont turn on. There is a power light on the Motherboard but doesn't seem to do anything else.

Could the lightning of fried the Motherboard or any other components even if the PC is turned off?

If so what is lightly to go first or what should i test first?

Minstadave · 12 Oct 2006 at 10:46

I'd test the PSU first, then the mobo, but it could have frazzled anything really.

squiffy · 12 Oct 2006 at 10:49

Could the lightning of fried the Motherboard or any other components even if the PC is turned off?

Yes, the PSU is still connected to the mains. Always remove the mains plug from the wall during a lightning storm. switching it off at the wall isn't enough.

FUNTY · 12 Oct 2006 at 11:43

I changed the PSU, same story, no joy. His PSU works fine on my 2nd machine so it must be a board problem.

Its a socket 478 so he can pick one up pretty cheap now anyway. Its a shame as i have just sold my old P4C800 Delux so cant test the rest of his components + he could have had that - One of the best boards i ever owned.

Just have to hope nothing else is dead.

Defcon5 · 12 Oct 2006 at 11:44

This happened to me before, thankfully i had a decent psu and it didnt destroy everything.

kitten · 12 Oct 2006 at 11:58

I don't think this is too uncommon. A lightning strike hit a tree on the other side of the road from my house a couple of years ago. It took out a switch, a router, and the on board NIC of the only powered on PC connected to the switch. All the effected PC's other components were OK btw. The four other machines connected to the switch were powered down at the time and unaffected.

I believe EMP from the strike was the cause. Fortunately my insurers did not see it as and act of dog and payed up.

El_Watcher · 12 Oct 2006 at 12:51

This is why everyone should have an anti-surge socket or UPS for your PC. i used to work for a company that repaired PCs and I new every time there was a lightning storm, we would have at least 3 PCs brought in with fried parts.
For £15-£20 you can save yourself a lot of hasstle.

VaderDSL · 12 Oct 2006 at 12:53

El_Watcher said:
This is why everyone should have an anti-surge socket or UPS for your PC. i used to work for a company that repaired PCs and I new every time there was a lightning storm, we would have at least 3 PCs brought in with fried parts.
For £15-£20 you can save yourself a lot of hasstle.

Wouold a surge protector actually help?

Edit - Saying that I have my main PC plugged into a surge protector, however whether I would trust it to protect my equipment from a lightning strike I am not sure.

Minstadave · 12 Oct 2006 at 12:55

VaderDSL said:
Wouold a surge protector actually help?

Edit - Saying that I have my main PC plugged into a surge protector, however whether I would trust it to protect my equipment from a lightning strike I am not sure.

I thought the point of a surge protector was exactly that, to "take one for the team" and stop the surge knackering your PC.

VaderDSL · 12 Oct 2006 at 13:02

Minstadave said:
I thought the point of a surge protector was exactly that, to "take one for the team" and stop the surge knackering your PC.

Ahh yeah, was just reading the Belkin page about the surge protector I have, not sure how much faith I have in it. However I usually unplug fromt he mains in thunderstorms

kitten · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:48

Surge protection didn't help in my case. One of the mains loops in the work room is protected from surge and has RCD protection. My PC was connected through an APC700 powered from the protected loop, although the switch and router were not. These were connected to the protected mains loop though. That's why I believe it was EMP from strike, in my case, rather than any voltage from the strike reaching the equipment that caused the damage.

bledd · 12 Oct 2006 at 15:51

this used to happen with plugged in modems, i'd make a killing each itme there was a strike in my area

£20 for modem, £15 installation

Seft · 12 Oct 2006 at 16:02

Exactly the same thing happened to my parents. Good excuse for them to upgrade. Now they have a faster computer than I do

El_Watcher · 12 Oct 2006 at 16:47

kitten said:
Surge protection didn't help in my case. One of the mains loops in the work room is protected from surge and has RCD protection. My PC was connected through an APC700 powered from the protected loop, although the switch and router were not. These were connected to the protected mains loop though. That's why I believe it was EMP from strike, in my case, rather than any voltage from the strike reaching the equipment that caused the damage.

Were the switch and router connected to a modem, as a surge could have come down the phone line?

kitten · 12 Oct 2006 at 17:31

El_Watcher said:
Were the switch and router connected to a modem, as a surge could have come down the phone line?

The router (ADSL) was connected to the phone line via filter. So the phone line was a possible source of surge. The three phones also connected to the same line were not affected.

hp7909 · 12 Oct 2006 at 17:35

FUNTY said:
I changed the PSU, same story, no joy. His PSU works fine on my 2nd machine so it must be a board problem.

Its a socket 478 so he can pick one up pretty cheap now anyway. Its a shame as i have just sold my old P4C800 Delux so cant test the rest of his components + he could have had that - One of the best boards i ever owned.

Just have to hope nothing else is dead.

I would include a new PSU in the shopping list & one from reputable brand! I mean, current one couldn't even 'take one for the team'

rickyt · 12 Oct 2006 at 18:59

Yes , this can be a big problem .I've leaned my lesson too. I remember in 1997 we had a big storm and the lights dimmed for a second or two and the surge blew my Pc ,my fergusen TV and a phillips satellite reciever .Cost me bit to put it all right . I went to the local computer fair and bought a few anti-surge protectors. Have been using them ever since , but one thing ,if I hear thunder & lightning outside I come off-line and switch off my Pc and most other electricals ........just in case.

Boogle · 12 Oct 2006 at 19:26

Surge protectors aren't guaranteed to save a computer, they can respond too slowly. By the time the protector kicks in, the PC may already be dead. Less sensitive equipment is usually sufficiently protected by a surge protector.

UPS should protect PCs from lightening strikes though.

Sir Random · 12 Oct 2006 at 20:45

bledd. said:
this used to happen with plugged in modems, i'd make a killing each itme there was a strike in my area £20 for modem, £15 installation

Yeah, after a big storm a few years back, I had 3 PCs in for repair with blown 56k modems. 2 of them had actual holes in the main conexant chip.
Strangely, none of them had any problem with their phones.

w3bbo · 12 Oct 2006 at 21:03

A few months ago a strike took out my whole PC, everything from the PSU to the floppy drive was FUBAR (never heard of floppies dying but this had).

Buy a decent surge protector, at least if things should go wrong and the surge protector dosn't protect then you are usually covered by there own insurance.