What computer components or electronics have you lost due to electrical storms?

[Drekce]

I just had a bunch of stuff destroyed about two weeks ago (Central Florida). I have everything plugged in to good surge protectors, but failed to run my cable line through one...



Surge came through the cable line (I have direcTV for TV, so this was purely for internet), destroyed my cable modem, my router and two gigabit switches plugged into the router. It destroyed my Boxee Box, one of my DirecTV recievers (Cat5 is plugged into it for on-demand stuff) and a NIC in my server. Luckily my 360, PS3 and other computers weren't damaged.



I had to buy a new router, switches and NIC for my PC, but Boxee was still under warranty and was replaced. DirecTV is sending me a new reciever at no cost as well.



Lesson learned, surge protect ANY cable that comes into your home that plugs into electronics; not just power.

Sorry to bump such an oldie, but this happened again tonight. The apparent culprit was the cable modem and things connected to it via Ethernet. Crap. It even fried an HDMI switch, which obviously only indirectly connects.

 

[Engineer]

Had outside light in front yard. About 10 years ago, was hit by lightning. Traveled into my home and burned 4 of my outlets including burning the wire of the first one in the chain in half.

Took out 2 PC's, one projection TV, one router, one cable modem, one network switch, one wireless phone, one glass tube TV and several other smaller electronic items. Was the biggest pain to get Allstate to pay the damn claim. Was so bad that I finally told them to cancel it and forget it. At that point, they did a 180 and paid up with no more questions.

 

[MongGrel]

Had one in Central FL take out the 286 about 20 years ago I was programming with, the modem through the RS232 and several boards, both comms, and one of the servo ones I think, in two Sodick Wire EDMS.

They next time I asked the boss after that if he wanted me to shut them down when there where lightning strikes in the area close, he said yes.

 

[irishScott]

None.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I guess I've been lucky, never lost anything, at least not that I can recall. I have all my stuff on surge and on UPS. The biggest threat is bad shutdowns, as even a far lightning hit can cause that if it knocks the power out.

During the really bad storms where there's tons of lightning that seems to be very local I'll sometimes turn off the breaker and unplug the UPSes and let it run off the batteries till the storm passes, but not sure how much that actually helps. A local hit is probably going to arc everywhere and damage stuff anyway.

Come to think of it, it's been a really long time since we've had a real good lightning storm. They're kind of fun.

 

[Kaido]

Sorry to bump such an oldie, but this happened again tonight. The apparent culprit was the cable modem and things connected to it via Ethernet. Crap. It even fried an HDMI switch, which obviously only indirectly connects.

Man, that stinks!

Worst I ever had was at work - lightning hit the ground outside of an office where they were having a meeting. It was like an EMP - the "shockwave" hit the IP phone in the room (and made everyone's hair stand up & cell phones light up on their own), traveled all the way down the PoE Ethernet cable and fried a $4,000 switch in the server room. I did a power down when I went to swap it out, only to find that it had taken out the $3,000 UPS as well - it was just waiting for shutdown to finish frying. That was an expensive day :thumbsdown:

 

[westom]

The apparent culprit was the cable modem and things connected to it via Ethernet. Crap. It even fried an HDMI switch, which obviously only indirectly connects.

Now go back to the original reply to appreciate the problem.

First, you are thinking a protector is protection. It is not. A protector is only a connecting device (like a wire) to what is the protection. You never discussed (as I remember) anything about the earth ground. Did the cable enter at the service entrance so as to make a maybe 3 foot wire connection direct to the earth ground rod? Same electrode also used by AC electric? If not, then a best and destructive path is incoming on AC mains. And outgoing to earth via all cable attached appliances.

Damage is on the outgoing path; not on the incoming path for each appliance.

Your TV HDMI connected to a satellite dish? So how was that the incoming path? Probably not. Incoming on AC mains. Outgoing to earth maybe via the satellite dish installation.

Second, to say more requires details even of how wires are bent to enter a building. But this principle applies. To say why anything is damaged requires defining both a surge's incoming and outgoing paths from that appliance. Without both paths, then no appliance damage can happen. And again, often damage is on an outgoing path. Cable may be an outgoing path to earth; not the incoming surge path. AC electric is most often an incoming path that caused damage to cable and HDMI port connections.

How does every wire inside every incoming cable connect to earth before (or when) enterhing the building?

 

[Perknose]

Just lost my 55" rear projection Hitachi (beautiful pic) and all the FIOS gear a couple of weeks ago.

Years ago I lost my answering machine and stereo receiver (see? YEARS ago -- I didn't even own a TV then.). That one was wild. When the lightning hit, I was standing in the living room and saw, from 6 or so feet away, two eye-level, blue tinged, yellow/white beams meet each other in the center of the room and produce an egg-shaped oval of electic goodness the size of your two hands, fingers interlaced, plus!

Had a 'puter then, too, an 8088 (this was 1985.) It escaped harm.

Yowzah!

Came here to post this, but that wombat licker Perknose beat me to it . . . by years! D:

 

[blankslate]

No. I'm extremely paranoid about that and disconnect my surge protectors from the wall outlets and remove the cable connections from them when a storm sounds close.

Looking up local radar helps if there are any questions about the nearness of a storm.


....

 

[blankslate]

Damn.. repost. Need to replace the mouse on this computer. Flaky left click.

 

[Perknose]

None. I'm extremely paranoid about that and disconnect my surge protectors from the wall outlets and remove the cable connections from them when a storm sounds close.

Looking up local radar helps if there are any questions about the nearness of a storm.
....

None. I'm extremely paranoid about that and disconnect my surge protectors from the wall outlets and remove the cable connections from them when a storm sounds close.

Looking up local radar helps if there are any questions about the nearness of a storm.
....

And you're fastidiously redundant about making sure your post goes through!

And you're fastidiously redundant about making sure your post goes through!

 

[Drekce]

Now go back to the original reply to appreciate the problem.



First, you are thinking a protector is protection. It is not. A protector is only a connecting device (like a wire) to what is the protection. You never discussed (as I remember) anything about the earth ground. Did the cable enter at the service entrance so as to make a maybe 3 foot wire connection direct to the earth ground rod? Same electrode also used by AC electric? If not, then a best and destructive path is incoming on AC mains. And outgoing to earth via all cable attached appliances.



Damage is on the outgoing path; not on the incoming path for each appliance.



Your TV HDMI connected to a satellite dish? So how was that the incoming path? Probably not. Incoming on AC mains. Outgoing to earth maybe via the satellite dish installation.



Second, to say more requires details even of how wires are bent to enter a building. But this principle applies. To say why anything is damaged requires defining both a surge's incoming and outgoing paths from that appliance. Without both paths, then no appliance damage can happen. And again, often damage is on an outgoing path. Cable may be an outgoing path to earth; not the incoming surge path. AC electric is most often an incoming path that caused damage to cable and HDMI port connections.



How does every wire inside every incoming cable connect to earth before (or when) enterhing the building?

I had the cable guy out yesterday to replace my modem. When we checked the incoming line to the house he noticed that the earth ground wire had been disconnected and was used for the DirecTV. That's right, the DirecTV installer took a shortcut probably because he assumed I wouldn't be using the cable lines anymore...

I'm assuming that the same thing was done at my old house, which is where the first instance occurred.

 

[dyna]

No protector does protection. That is how the naive are manipulated. Most want solutions in a magic box. The protector is simple science. Only effective if it makes a short (ie 'less than 10 foot') connection to earth. If you did not inspect, upgrade, and enhance the earthing, then you still had no protection.

Earthing is the art.

No protector ever does protection. Not one. Either a protector connects short to what does all protection (therefore called effective). Or protection does not exist.

Any protector recommended because of its warranty is probably a scam. Most protectors with big buck warranties do not even claim protection. And come with so many exemptions that its warranty will not be honored.

No protector does protection - as defined by details in previous posts.

I have had 2 lightning strikes, 1 direct(1st) and 1 indirect(2nd). I had a whole house surge protector for the indirect strike and the surge protector company payed me for the damages. So the warranty isn't always a scam.

I had high quality surge protectors connected to devices during both strikes. None of the equipment connected to the surge protectors were damaged. One protector that was connected to my furnace did go out. That was replaced free of charge from the surge protector company. So I do believe that having good surge protectors will protect equipment. I lost some TV's/media equipment and I'm fairly certain that was the result of not having the coax cables going through the protectors. After the first strike I made sure that path was covered and the second strike, none of the media equipment was damaged.

The intercom and security systems were damaged during both strikes and they did not have surge protectors connected. I'm trying a wall outlet protector now for the security system but they don't seem as heavy duty, so i'm not sure it will help but who knows.

 

[SearchMaster]

I lost two routers, a DSL modem, an HDMI port on a TV (but nothing else in the chain - weird), and the controller board for my hot tub on a strike a few years ago that was close enough to scare the living **** out of me. I was coming out of my shed and it was loud and close enough that I shrieked like a little girl and every hair on my body stood up.

My routers and DSL modems die enough that I have plenty of backups (I buy several at a time, then configure them in pairs so I can plug and play them back into the network), but the hot tub board was a PITA. We got a spare board from the repairman that was missing the remote control functions for $150 instead of a new replacement for $800.

 

[InfiniteLurker]

I think I lost 3 or 4 modems in the 90's due to storms. That's been it though.

 

[Anarchist420]

None

 

[dmcowen674]

Lost a cable box last week when I was hit by lightning. Guess the apartment was hit too.

 

[jjsbasmt]

VCR in the 80's. Sat Receiver, VCR and TV all hooked together about 5 yrs ago. (oops, almost forgot, Circuit Panel in basement on that one).

 

[OBLAMA2009]

ive had blackouts and i dont think its ever ruined anything, so i think thats like, an urban myth

 

[John Connor]

Just posted this: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2389145

Thought my shit went out but it was a strike at the substation I assume since it was in that vicinity and all utilities here are buried.