Had a power surge - please help

[badash56]

Hello all,

I had a power surge in my house during a storm the other day. My cable modem was not on a surge protector (I know dumb), and it caused some damage. My second computer will not even post. I'm considering that one dead, no big loss really. However, on my main brand new computer, the onboard network port was dead. Windows said I had no networking hardware at all, and the BIOS did not have the port anymore either.

However the computer will still boot (I'm on it right now) and it appears to work ok again (had to put in a new NIC). Well, this is what I thought until I went to play WOW today. The sound is full of static and it stutters every so often. Also the video is running slower than it used to. I still get about hmm 40-50fps, but it hitches constantly when it never did that prior the storm. I tried out TF2 and it did the same thing.

I'm guessing there is some sort of damage to the motherboard? Does this sound like power surge damage to anyone? I'm honestly surprised it still boots and runs. But minus the sound and video issue there appears to be no damage.

Any suggestions on what I should do? Should I replace the motherboard (Gigabyte P35)? It is a shame cause this PC was running amazing. Guess I learned my lesson about surge protectors.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Narse]

Defiantly replace the MB if you have a bad port. I sounds more like the surge came through the ethernet cable.

 

[daveybrat]

If it was running perfectly before the storm then i'd say it sounds like the motherboard took a nice hit. It's very rare for onboard lan to die, so it sounds like the whole board is failing due to the sound issues and overall decreased performance.

Try plugging your pc into a different surge protector as well....maybe the current one is damaged.

 

[badash56]

Well this is interesting, I just reflashed my BIOS and now the sound/video issues are gone. Does this make sense to anyone? Or is it just random luck....

 

[Slowlearner]

Since your onboard nic died the power surge defintely came thru the broadband connection. Living in Florida where every summer, afternoon thunderstorms are common, I have seen many modem/routers/nic/motherboards zapped this way. I had a epox 8rda+ board that was zapped but also developed blown caps along the way - Epox repaired it and it is still working fine - so I would say its easy to repair - but a bios update is not going to do it although it may seem to do so. You do need a surge protector with coaxial cable (not newwork) protectors like Belkin Surgemaster ModelFPH702 - dont particularly like Belkin - but this was 20$ at in the old Compusa.

 

[robisbell]

replace PSU, Motherboard at minimum. consider also replacing CPU,RAM as well.

 

[vanvock]

Originally posted by: badash56
Well this is interesting, I just reflashed my BIOS and now the sound/video issues are gone. Does this make sense to anyone? Or is it just random luck....

If it works run with it. Surge proctectors are a definate must have but in the event of a lightning strike all bets are off. They are only good for normal spikes & are no defence from lightning.