Lightning Strike

[Anon_F]

So here is the scenario; it's heavy rain and lightning as in last night’s storm in South East England. Do you?

a) Turn of your pc & disconnect the plug from the socket & the telephone line?
b) Carry on without a care in the world, as the chance of a strike of lightning is low?
c) Dance round naked in the garden realising you pray for rain has been answered?


The answer is NOT "C" unless you’re on the wacy-backy
It is in fact "B” Unless of course you think lightning never strikes twice in the same place! Wrong, my un-named friend now has a deep fried pc as his house got a direct hit. No damage to house just blew a few of the electrics, oh and his pc he forgot to unplug.

Must admit I have never seen a lightning fried motherboard until this morning, seems everything is now totally wrecked. But on the good side the electricity board got all the electrics sorted out last night, so at least they have power, just no pc!

 

[V_R]

I never even turn me pc off...let alone unplug the thing. i never worried about the lighting frying it...

 

[WinkingPig]

Surge protector springs to mind...

 

[Anon_F]

Last nights storm was the worst i have seen in a few years.

"Surge protector springs to mind..." felt it was a waste of £10.
Not sure if they are coverd by their house insurance or not.

 

[WinkingPig]

Depends which brand surge protector you buy, some of them are rubbish, but the proper ones work fine. They are like £19-£29 though.

 

[V_R]

I got one with surge protection and equipment guarantee and some cool flashing lights!

 

[psd99]

I never even turn me pc off...let alone unplug the thing. i never worried about the lighting frying it...

same here

I rekon the last time I turned my beauty off was in 2005
but now what the thread starter has written makes me really worry

 

[Anon_F]

Even with a surge protector with nice flashing lights, i still turn my pc off at night and always when their is lightning about, i just dont want to take the risk just in case.

For my frind it could be a costly mistake for her!

 

[WinkingPig]

Yeah but the proper Original Surge Protector's have like a £10k insurance policy if it fails to stop surges from ruining your equipment.

That's quite a good deal when they only cost like £29 to start with, and a with computers now-a-days it wouldn't be a bad idea to get one, as the new machines are fairly expensive.

 

[Abarbarian]

Got a Belkin UPS secondhandof e-bay £25 inc postage ,2.5 years ago (came from Isle of Skye) cos electrics a bit dodgy up here , its been working fine and the Bullguard software that came with it shuts down the pc after closing all applications nicely . Useful item specialy as I forget to feed the electric meter


I don't have my BT modem routed through it , an oversight on my part which cost me dear

So one day we have a major storm , ligtening and thunder , fabulouse . THE PHONE RANG , " YEAH WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM , BLAH BLAH " hang up . Watched the storm for a while and settled in to watch the tv , protected by a surge protector .

Next day , switch on pc , no internet connection , THE PHONE LINE WORKED , so I fiddle around for a while , light on modem , cables in etc etc , give up fiddling and ring AOL , now its realy annoying when you can't get on line and your on hold and a voice keeps telling you that you can get help from AOL by going to their on line help facility . AOL said they would have to check the line after making me try out all sorts of altering their software settings etc etc . It took them 14 days to work out that my modem (just one small resistor or somefing, the lights were still on ) had fried and for them to get me a new one

Boy was I just a tad upset . They did give me a £20.00 refund for lost time and phone charges .(they did after I insisted, ring me back to cut phone costs whilst sorting out stuff)

The point of this story is it aint just your pc at risk if theres a storm . The phone line and your modem is at risk aswell .

SURGE PROTECTORS ALL ROUND IS THE WAY TO GO .

 

[Abarbarian]

b +c , its not the wacky backy I just love torrential rain

 

[AbsoluteKevster]

Interestingly enough Feckit - I thought to myself last night, whilst stroking my chin... 'This looks nasty!'
So 'OFF' went my PC, Router and Modem!

I think it pays to highlight that lightning poses a real threat, and isn't just a story-telling fable!

 

[muckshifter]

You don't need a 'direct hit' to be a victim of Lightning ... it can travel quite well underground, though the Electricity Board (or whatever your local company is called) use their own surge-suppressors to stop every house getting 'blown' in an event. Now you know why we sometimes have a black out.

We had a spate of thunderstorms in Cardiff one week ... I got to see 5 PCs and had numerous phone calls from other people whose PC now refused to work ... everyone was a BT, or were using a tele co that used BT, customer ... some were lucky and all that was needed was to replace the modem, others lost the whole PC.

I have always use a 'surge-protector' and I quite like the Belkin range ... I have three.

 

[Taffycat]

I'm a switcher-offer and unplugger, despite using a surge protector - we also remove the tv aerials here

 

[floppybootstomp]

Just the one time, back in 98 or 99, did a PC of mine suffer damage from lightning.

It was my daughter's machine, the strike killed the internal 56K modem and the PCI bus on the motherboard.

Three other computers connected to the mains were unnafected.

Last night, during those storms, I did actually disconnect a new sound system and the two computers not being used.

I then opted for option C and danced naked in the garden, just as a precaution.

Not sure if it worked, but it sure was fun, though my neighbours may disagree with me.

 

[cirianz]

lol, now that i would've liked to see flops
Used to do that in thunder storms when I was a kid
Fantastic fun

I always use a surge protector, the leccy our here can be pretty dodgy sometimes,
But I heard that something like a direct lightning strike would just jump right across one?
Just hearsay though... happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better?

 

[muckshifter]

A direct Lightning strike can kill anything ...

My brother un-plugs everything not in use, even his kids do it, storm or no storm, but I have never seen him pull the telephone out of the socket yet ...here in Southport ALL telephone cables are underground, like I said, Lighning can travel quite happily along them neat little pathways.

My Belkin's all have sockets for the phone ... must admit, I do not use them.