P
pointy31
Guest
Hey folks, Caz asked me to relay to the good people here that he is out of service for a few days due to a lightning strike that damaged his computer.
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The Staff of SOH
... Tell Caz we hope he gets it sorted out and gets back up and running soon.
I feel for ya Caz, I have had three computers blown up by separate lightning strikes so far (one literally so as two electrolytic capacitors were blown clean off the PSU board! :isadizzy
At the first rumble I now unplug all my computer equipment (including the monitors) from the power source AND unplug the phone line from my high speed DSL modem/router.
Why unplug the phone line I hear you ask. Well the last time my equipment was fried all the power leads were disconnected and yet I still got equipment damaged! The strike hit a phone distribution box just down the street and got into the phone lines, came into my house and fried three out of four phones and my high speed modem/router. Not content with doing that damage the surge then shot down the ethernet cables connected to the router and fried the ethernet cards/ethernet onboard circuits on the corresponding computers.
I was out of contact for over a month as I had to wait for my ISP to send me a new modem/router which got lost in the post and had to be resent. It doesn't help that I live in the thunderstorm capital of Canada and we get an average of 34 thunderstorm 'days' per year and we can get several thunderstorms per 'day' during the thunderstorm season (Mar-Oct).
At the first rumble I now unplug all my computer equipment (including the monitors) from the power source AND unplug the phone line from my high speed DSL modem/router.
Why unplug the phone line I hear you ask. Well the last time my equipment was fried all the power leads were disconnected and yet I still got equipment damaged! The strike hit a phone distribution box just down the street and got into the phone lines, came into my house and fried three out of four phones and my high speed modem/router. Not content with doing that damage the surge then shot down the ethernet cables connected to the router and fried the ethernet cards/ethernet onboard circuits on the corresponding computers.
I was out of contact for over a month as I had to wait for my ISP to send me a new modem/router which got lost in the post and had to be resent. It doesn't help that I live in the thunderstorm capital of Canada and we get an average of 34 thunderstorm 'days' per year and we can get several thunderstorms per 'day' during the thunderstorm season (Mar-Oct).
Even with wireless and a battery powered laptop you can still lose your DSL/cable modem Bill.
Even with wireless and a battery powered laptop you can still lose your DSL/cable modem Bill.
OOpps... didn't know that :isadizzy: .... I should know, living from the lightning capital of the country....
Thanks, from now on... when there's lightning... I'm off the clock....
Sorry to hear about Caz's computer...
Eli
As I posted above I lost my DSL modem when a strike came up the phone line and the unit was turned off and disconnected from the mains at the time.
Don't think you are safe because you have surge protected outlet strips either. I had/have those on all my computers and yet the surge still got through and in the case where my PSU blew up it also blew apart the outlet strip too (it was like a rifle shot going off!) When I opened it up after the strike the power buss bar had melted through at one point and there were spatters of what had been molten metal all over the inside of the cover.
Surge protectors are good at protecting against the small spikes you get from a 'dirty' power feed but they get weaker with age and each spike they stop weakens them more until they will fail (without warning) and they usually fail just when you need them the most. They will never be able to stop the massive spike which can be generated by a close lightning strike. The only sure protection from lightning is to disconnect from the power source AND disconnect the phone line from your DSL/cable modem.
A friend of mine works at a call centre and was wearing a telephone headset during a thunderstorm and the surge came though the phone lines and her headset and grounded itself in her ear! She had some nasty burns right down to her inner ear and was off work for several weeks in considerable pain because of it, even now she still suffers from bad headaches/earaches on that side.
The best way to protect your computer system during an electrical storm is to unplug it from every outside connection. That means power, telephone, cable. I know someone who unplugged the electrical lines, but left their cable internet connected. The cable coming into the house and computer or tv is copper wire and the strike went through it and fried their computer.
