Testing electrical damaged parts?

[rodan]

I'm currently trying to determine how a powersupply, mainboard, cpu, harddrive, and dvd drive, all went bad at the same time, in a computer that is owned by a friend of my sister's. The computer shop, where she bought it, ( computer still under warranty there), examined it, gave it back to her, and said it was damaged by a lighting strike, therefore, not covered under their warranty. They gave her a written estimate of the damage to the system, for her homeowner's( she can't turn it in, though, since she doesn't meet her deductible), charging her for that estimate. She gave the computer to me, to take apart, and examine, to see if I could tell if it got hit by lightning. I thoroughly tested each part, not with electrician diagnostics equipment, but, by installing each part in a working system, the computer shop was correct in their assessment that the parts are damaged, but, can they really tell if the damage was incurred by lightning, or, even a strong surge? Could they possess accurate, diagnotics equipment to tell them this, or, could they be just guessing? BTW, any links related to power supply and surge protector isssues would be appreciated.

 

[DaiShan]

I don't know if they can be absolutely sure if it was lightning, but if it wasn't on a surge protector, and they left it plugged in during a storm... also if they never opened it up, and all the parts died at the same time i would agree with the store. I don't know of anyway to tell if it was lighting for sure other than look for brown marks and the like, also tell your sister to purchase a surge protector with a garauntee (mine garauntees electronics up to $10,000) this way if it ever happens again, she is completely covered.

 

[rodan]

She had the computer system plugged into a surge protector which the computer shop sold her. When she took her computer to the computer shop, she failed to take along the surge protector for them to examine. This particular surge protector does carry equipment warranty, and, I am currently helping her process a claim with them.( That is another story, and, when we get the final results, I'm going to post the name of the surge protector company with the outcome of the claim) I think she was upset with the computer shop, because she thought they should honor the warranty, and, instead, they voided the warranty, to the exclusion for lightning and electrical surge damage. IF it was really a lightning strike, or surge that did the damage, obviously the computer shop is not reponsible to replace the parts under warranty, but, if the problem was determined to be due to a faulty power supply, or, mainboard, that's another issue.

 

[DaiShan]

definitely, I haven't ever heard of a psu spiking to the extent that it fried everything in the system (not to say that it hasn't happend) but if she did have it plugged into a surge protector, and the surge protector is spent, then that is an indication of lighting, if it isn't burned out, then I suggest going back to the computer store and telling them so.

 

[bsobel]

> This particular surge protector does carry equipment warranty

First, is the surge protector fried or not? If it's still working, I would be more doubtfull of the lightening strike. If it is fried, it was probably power/surge related. Was their an electrical storm as the time the unit died? If not was their any electrical work done by the utility at the time?

In two unrelated stories; My father lost a system to a lightening strike. The power strip manufactuer (APC) paid the claim quickly. One of my old roomates lost his entire system when the electrical transformer (in our front yard, a different story) exploded one night. Edison paid his claim on the system (but it took a few months)

Bill

 

[WarCon]

If the surge protector is a decent one, it has a light that lets you know that the surge protection blew trying to save your stuff. Just plug it in and see if the light is on or off and you can tell. My friend had lightning hit his house and kill 2 of his 3 computers and a bunch of other stuff. APC protected his main system (kudos to them), while another brand didn't protect his other one. They did buy him another computer though (almost all of it anyway, some of the components were still functional).

From what I seen the lightning damage will blow components very clearly. If there isn't any clear damage then the company is only guessing that it was lightning.

 

[rodan]

Visibly looking at the surge protector, it looks fine, no burnt looks or smell. You can even plug something into it, and, it works. There were storms that day, according to her, that is why she thought maybe lighting damaged her computer. What puzzled her, she thought she should "smell something burnt", or, visibly see some kind of electrical damage, neither occurred. This is the reason she brought the computer to me, to see if I could tell if it was hit by lightning, or strong surge. Looking at the parts, they show no evidence of electrical damage, and, no burnt smell. No brown spots on the motherboard, even the power supply, (which is dead, too), shows no physical signs of damage. I'm going to open it up, "after" the surge protector company makes settlement.
In reference to the surge protector brand: It's a Belkin, the box says it carrys $ 20,000 equipment warranty( I'm glad she kept the original surge protector box). I sent the surge protector to the
company as per their request already, and, can't remember if it had grounding and surge protection
indicators on it.
My experience with surge protectors, so far: I've had one all of a sudden "pop" and, quit on me, luckily, it didn't damage anything connected to it. I've had one, during a severe thunderstorm, went through the phone lines, and, even though the internal modem was connected to the surge protector, still damaged the modem, but, not the whole computer. ( This same person lost her digital satellite system, dish, receiver, even TV, but, no damage to computer, except for modem) I recently had a situation, where I hookd up a computer for someone, to a surge protector that came from Radio Shack, probably over 2 years old, before the day was over, the computer's mainboard, memory, and harddrive failed. We replaced those parts, booted back up, hooked up to the same surge protector, I noticed something not quite right, with the computer, we ran it about a half hour, then, I powered down, looked physically at the surge protector, it had a red inidicator on it, that indicated it was bad. We replaced it, computer ran fine. Oh, and, when Radio Shack examined this particuliar surge protector, they said it was fine! ( yeah, sure it is)
Anyway, this is why I'm interested in knowing "if' and "how" I can test computer parts, maybe even surge protectors, power supplys, etc, to see what caused the parts to fail.

 

[jklesel]

i HAVE had a computer come to me for repair with the exact same symptoms. so i did what u did, tried every part separately to make sure it is indeed dead. when i replaced the motherboard in the case with my own own (to give them a loner while i ordered new parts) the PSU sparked and fried MY motherboard also! so it was the sh!tty PSU the whole time. there was never any burnt electronics to speak of in the beggining untill of course the PSU sparked and smoked.

From my experience i would stop messing around with that PSU right away before u ruin more computer parts. By the way the PSU i delt with was a DEER PSU. hope this helps. and good luck!

 

[rodan]

The power supply is also bad, it's a Deer DR-250ATX. I tried it out in another system, it's definitely bad. Now, I wonder if there is a way, ( or a place I could take or send it to) that can 100 percent verify if it was a surge, lightning, or, a defect in the power supply?