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Lightening strike on house/computer zapped!!!

M

maddawg

Member
My brothers house was recently struck by lightening and he has a 9" x 13" hole in his roof. All of his electrical components got fried, even the ones with surge protecters - except for his TV and a toaster oven.

His computer did not work and was surge protected with an APC surege protecter when struck, but the light on the motherboard still goes on. He tried a new power supply and that did not work - No power at all to MB. He then bought the exact same motherboard and now his system boots - It stays on for a while, then shuts down. I advised him to unplug all unnessesary components and it still does not work properly. I also told him to try only one stick of ram and still does not work.

Is there anything we can do to troubleshoot it further before buying a new computer?
Can it be the CPU overheating?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!
 
First of all - wow! It went throught the roof and made a hole in the floor? Can we get some pics of this? Maybe you should post in off topic too.

Back on topic, if even a tiny percentage of the power from a lightning bolt actually got past the power supply, you're lucky the computer has not been turned into a liquid. I would assume all components to be destroyed unless it can be proved otherwise. The graphics card for example can be checked visually for blown/bulging capacitors and burn marks, but may have to be tested in another machine, same with other components. It's a risky process though as the blown component may damage the test machine.

Can you (he) not just claim the whole thing on home insurance? That's what I'd do.

 
Altheus is right. A direct hit renders most everything damaged - that includes the RAM and possibly all peripherals. A surge protector doesn't even delay a direct hit. Been there, done that! Lost our complete security panel and all sensors. Fortunately, we were away, and I always unplug my computers when we are away. We have mucho lightning here in Tucson.

I'm afraid that now your bro is in a complete salvage mode.
 
File a claim with APC and let them laugh at you.

Then file a claim with your home owners/renters insurance, get your check and build a new rig.

If you have the right type of policy you should get what you paid for the computer, not what it would cost to replace it. Then you can build a new super rig by todays standards.
 
Good call, AgentJean. Insurance covered my security control panel et al completely. Ended up with a better system than I had. 🙂
 
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