House took a lightening hit, electronics fried

[Irishnutcase]

@Montoya, have you had lighting hit your house before? Or is your area prone to lightning strikes? If so look into installing a lightning rod and take a good look at your house wiring including the ground leading from your main (breaker box) to the ground outside your house. You might even need to do a ground test to see how good your grounding is, you may need to install more ground wire. But first I'd check the ground from the box leading outside because if you don't know who put the service into your home then for all you know they put in one ground 3 feet in because they hit a rock and did not feel like going anymore. Open question: would the ethernet connectors on a surge protector save your computer if the ethernet was ran that way?

 

[Annitias]

Use what the big kids use here:

http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-SMART3000CRMXL-Rackmount-Line-Interactive/dp/B001FB5TUO

Power goes out? No problem!

 

[Frisbeerocker]

Montoya, if we have to fun you a new computer I'm going to be very upset while i'm getting out my wallet.

 

[Montoya]

@Montoya, have you had lighting hit your house before? Or is your area prone to lightning strikes?

We are not the highest house on the street, I would not think lightening would hit here too often, but we did have a few power surges in the past.

Use what the big kids use here:

http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-SMART3000CRMXL-Rackmount-Line-Interactive/dp/B001FB5TUO

Power goes out? No problem!

Yeah, Ill take 4 of these.

Montoya, if we have to fun you a new computer I'm going to be very upset while i'm getting out my wallet.

I think this computer will be find, maybe just a new motherboard!

 

[BUTUZ]

You don't need to go crazy and spend big money.

Big boss man I save you money so you can spend more money on lapdances from me.

If you mod up some cabling so that you can plug you're router in to the back of the UPS so the router becomes surge proof - then all of you're Ethernet connections into various devices become surge proofed too.

The bad stuff happened because you're router was plugged directly into the wall - it was the weakest lightning link. It's not 100% 100% safe as the lightling bolt could still technically come up the phone line and into the router - but the chance of it making it's way out of the modem into other devices is low, that't not what happened to you I don't think.

 

[Phantomoftruth]

jeebus.

 

[TheWoad]

Hey guys!

I might be a bit AFK this weekend.

We had a nice rain storm pass through last night and the one single thunderbolt seems to have hit my house.

TV's, aircon and tons of electronics looks to be toast.

Computer was on surge protector, but the ethernet is no longer working, looks like it might have taken a surge.

Some other functions on the motherboard like temp sensors not working, is that possible?

Yes it's possible. Circuitry these days is so small (literally a few dozen atoms wide) That even the static in the air after the lightning strike could play hell with them. Bummer about your house, glad to hear nobody got hurt. RIP ethernet.

 

[Designated Drunk]

Yes it's possible. Circuitry these days is so small (literally a few dozen atoms wide) That even the static in the air after the lightning strike could play hell with them.

Thing is, ethernet is transformer coupled, and some systems even have opto-isolation - that's how you can have a 300 foot run of ethernet between two systems with wildly varying ground potentials without letting out the blue smoke. I'd wager it's more likely that something took a hit from the power side rather than the network side.

 

[Unshaven]

Sorry to hear you got hit.

You may want to consider replacing the surge protector power strips too. If they use MOV's (metal oxide varistor's) for protection they may have been destroyed or weakened in the process of absorbing the transient.

 

[WhooptyWoo]

This very same thing happened to a friend a few years back. His power was surge protected but not is network. His cable modem, NIC, and sound car (for some reason) got fried. Fortunately the rest of his system still ran fine, and continues to till this very day.

 

[Designated Drunk]

His power was surge protected but not is network.

Unshaven made a very important observation - surge protectors that use MOVs (e.g. pretty much every cheap 'surge protector') are good for one solid hit only, after which they are compromised (with no indication that their surge protection capabilities are gone). For proper powerline surge protection, you need to use a UPS type of system that actually has no AC path from input to output (full isolation across the battery).

 

[ThunderKraken]

gotta get that ac up fast!

 

[Black Sunder]

Unshaven made a very important observation - surge protectors that use MOVs (e.g. pretty much every cheap 'surge protector') are good for one solid hit only, after which they are compromised (with no indication that their surge protection capabilities are gone). For proper powerline surge protection, you need to use a UPS type of system that actually has no AC path from input to output (full isolation across the battery).

So we need a surge protector and a UPS to be 99% safe?

 

[TheWoad]

Thing is, ethernet is transformer coupled, and some systems even have opto-isolation - that's how you can have a 300 foot run of ethernet between two systems with wildly varying ground potentials without letting out the blue smoke. I'd wager it's more likely that something took a hit from the power side rather than the network side.

I agree with you, it's obvious a power surge is what fried his ethernet. I was referring to the circuitry in MOBO,s GPU's, etc. Static electricity from the lightning is enough to literally fry the circuits on newer hardware. Think about how we need to ground ourselves out when working on our rigs: a static discharge so minute we can't even feel it can destroy a $2000 machine.

 

[chrizz]

Look for "Brennenstuhl" surge protection, if that's available in the US. This is what we use in serverrooms. It's the merc of all surge protection (apart from online UPS's)

 

[Snakey]

If Im not getting any temp readings, does this mean things will get hot and no fans will spin up?

I'm not an expert, but id say that some things probably fried your motherboard systems, can you hear the fans revving up when you turn it on? Could you replace the motherboard only and re-use the rest? Sorry to hear about this, hope everything gets better m8

 

[CosmicTrader]

one single thunderbolt seems to have hit my house.

TV's, aircon and tons of electronics looks to be toast.

As this has affected several electronic items, it is possible that the house grounding has a problem. I would suggest hiring a Certified Electrician to inspect and verifiy that your home is properly grounded. The local Utility Company can provide one. The grounding rods do come 'loose' on occasions. It is well worth the expense for peace of mind.

Good luck friend.

 

[LurchLord]

If I were in your shoes (you should thank the gods I'm not, what with foot odour and such) I would start suspecting that someone, somewhere has it out for you.

Are you, mayhaps, late on your sacrifices to some short tempered thunder god?

 

[Montoya]

If I were in your shoes (you should thank the gods I'm not, what with foot odour and such) I would start suspecting that someone, somewhere has it out for you.

Are you, mayhaps, late on your sacrifices to some short tempered thunder god?

I shall be sure to find some animal and burn its flesh, then eat that flesh with some bbq sauce.

 

[Irishnutcase]

well montoya at least it's kinda cool today. lol