Should I buy a new motherboard if lightning hit my computer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter needin4mation
  • Start date Start date
N

needin4mation

Here is what happened. Lightning hit my cable modem and blew up the
integrated NIC as best I can tell from when it was my Windows XP
machine. Everything else seemed to work.

I want to use the machine with Linux and a wireless network card. it
will be a frontend mythtv box. yes. i am very cheap and dont want to
buy a new mobo. I bought a new one for my windows machine, but want to
use the mobo again. It works, just scared to use it.

Do you think it will burn my house down? I should just buy a new
motherboard shouldn't I?
 
Here is what happened. Lightning hit my cable modem and blew up the
integrated NIC as best I can tell from when it was my Windows XP
machine. Everything else seemed to work.
I want to use the machine with Linux and a wireless network card. it
will be a frontend mythtv box. yes. i am very cheap and dont want to
buy a new mobo. I bought a new one for my windows machine, but want to
use the mobo again. It works, just scared to use it.
Do you think it will burn my house down? I should just buy a new
motherboard shouldn't I?
Click to expand...

If only the on-board NIC isn't working, then the computer is fine to
run. You don't need to worry about it causing a fire, etc. You may
want to invest in a good surge protector.
 
Here is what happened. Lightning hit my cable modem and blew up the
integrated NIC as best I can tell from when it was my Windows XP
machine. Everything else seemed to work.

I want to use the machine with Linux and a wireless network card. it
will be a frontend mythtv box. yes. i am very cheap and dont want to
buy a new mobo. I bought a new one for my windows machine, but want to
use the mobo again. It works, just scared to use it.

Do you think it will burn my house down? I should just buy a new
motherboard shouldn't I?
Click to expand...

Keeping your computers inside your house will reduce the risk of
lightning hitting them...unless you have them set up next to windows
that you leave open...

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
KC said:
If only the on-board NIC isn't working, then the computer is fine to
run. You don't need to worry about it causing a fire, etc. You may
want to invest in a good surge protector.
Click to expand...

Which will do NOTHING to stop a lightning strike! No surge protector or
UPS will stop lightning. This has been discussed ad nauseum here, search
the google groups' archive of this group for multiple detailed discussions.


--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
Here is what happened. Lightning hit my cable modem and blew up the
integrated NIC as best I can tell from when it was my Windows XP
machine. Everything else seemed to work.

I want to use the machine with Linux and a wireless network card. it
will be a frontend mythtv box. yes. i am very cheap and dont want to
buy a new mobo. I bought a new one for my windows machine, but want to
use the mobo again. It works, just scared to use it.

Do you think it will burn my house down? I should just buy a new
motherboard shouldn't I?
Click to expand...

The same thing happened to my computer a few years ago.
I replaced the NIC and the computer has worked fine ever
since. YMMV.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
It works, just scared to use it.
Click to expand...

If it works, no need to worry.
Do you think it will burn my house down?
Click to expand...

Highly unlikely. If there were any kind of problem with it, you'd
know soon enough. And it's unlikely to be a fire hazard. Power
supplies that have been zapped might be risky; cards that have been
zapped may be damaged, but they aren't likely to cause fires.
 
spodosaurus said:
Which will do NOTHING to stop a lightning strike! No surge protector or
UPS will stop lightning.
Click to expand...

But conversely, a direct lightning strike is very rare. Other,
smaller transients are far more common, and most of them can be
protected against.
 
Mxsmanic said:
spodosaurus writes:




But conversely, a direct lightning strike is very rare. Other,
smaller transients are far more common, and most of them can be
protected against.
Click to expand...


Apparently not rare enough for the OP :-) heh

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
To determine what is damaged, first determine the path that lightning
used to find earth ground through your machine. Obviously one
component in that path was the integrated NIC. Problem is that
lightning first finds a complete circuit from cloud to earth. Only
some items in that path are damaged. Determine - the incoming and
outgoing path through any component that has failed now OR that has
been overstressed (fails days or a month later).

NIC cards are cheap. Install one. Rest of system will problably
work just fine. A surge current path typically does not pass through
power supply, RAM, hard drives, etc. However this can vary with each
installation.

Now to avoid all future damage. Direct lightning strikes without
damage are routine where a human has first learned basic concepts well
proven in the 1930s. If lightning entered via cable, then cable was
not properly earthed where it enters the building. However the
typically destructive transient to peripherals (ie modems) is incoming
on AC mains. Adjacent (plug-in) protectors can even make this damage
easier to occur.

Well proven technique is to earth the transient before it can enter a
building. Then internal protection already inside computers will not
be overwhelmed. For AC electric, that means earthing must be installed
using a 'whole house' protector - that is sold even in Home Depot
(Intermatic) and Lowes (Cutler-Hammer and GE). For cable, earthing is a
hardwire 'less than 10 feet' to that essential single point earth
ground.

Defined is how to predict what may and may not have been damaged as
well as how to routinely avoid damage from future direct strikes. The
NIC would be damaged because lightning found a destructive path to
earth into and out of that peripheral. I would also worry about the
cable modem since that is a direct outgoing path to earth ground -
assuming the cable was properly installed (earthed).
 
w_tom said:
Now to avoid all future damage. Direct lightning strikes without
damage are routine where a human has first learned basic concepts well
proven in the 1930s. If lightning entered via cable, then cable was
not properly earthed where it enters the building. However the
typically destructive transient to peripherals (ie modems) is incoming
on AC mains. Adjacent (plug-in) protectors can even make this damage
easier to occur.
Click to expand...

Are direct strikes a risk if everything is underground or indoors (as
in the middle of a large city)?
 
w_tom said:
To determine what is damaged, first determine the path that lightning
used to find earth ground through your machine. Obviously one
component in that path was the integrated NIC. Problem is that
lightning first finds a complete circuit from cloud to earth. Only
some items in that path are damaged.
Click to expand...

Utter nonsense.

If the NIC had been in the 'lightning path to ground' it, the whole
computer, and half the house around it would look like a bomb had been
dropped on it.

Electronics are damaged by induced surges.

<snip of B.S.>
 
Mxsmanic said:
w_tom writes:




Are direct strikes a risk if everything is underground or indoors (as
in the middle of a large city)?
Click to expand...

Yes, because earth is not uni-potential around a direct lightning strike.
 
Mxsmanic said:
Are direct strikes a risk if everything is underground or indoors (as
in the middle of a large city)?
Click to expand...

As this application note demonstrates - the underground
phone wire can also carry destructive transients. Every
incoming utility must first connect to the single point ground
before entering a building:

http://www.erico.com/public/library/fep/technotes/tncr002.pdf

Damage is created by direct strikes. A wire down the street
connected to your computer can be a direct strike to that
computer. Earth all incoming wires so that wires are not a
direct connection from cloud to transistors. Earth lightning
rods above the house so that wires inside the house are not a
direct connection. Protection is about diverting the direct
strike so that transient currents do not pass through
electronics - destructively seeking earth ground.
 
Same thing happened to me. Lost the integrated NIC as well as all of my
cordless phones. Put in a PCI NIC and all is fine.
 
w_tom said:
As this application note demonstrates - the underground
phone wire can also carry destructive transients. Every
incoming utility must first connect to the single point ground
before entering a building:

http://www.erico.com/public/library/fep/technotes/tncr002.pdf

Damage is created by direct strikes. A wire down the street
connected to your computer can be a direct strike to that
computer. Earth all incoming wires so that wires are not a
direct connection from cloud to transistors. Earth lightning
rods above the house so that wires inside the house are not a
direct connection. Protection is about diverting the direct
strike so that transient currents do not pass through
electronics - destructively seeking earth ground.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I have no control over these aspects of building wiring.
I hope it has been done correctly.
 
Same happened to me about 2 months ago. Lightning hit somewhere near the
house and blew a gas line inside, igniting the gas. My garage door opener,
garbage disposal, washing machine, cable modem, and router were all burned
out.

I use a UPS/surge protector on my pc, so, nothing with the pc itself was
affected.

I bought a new surge protector just in case and had to replace the modem and
router. After that, everything seem to be back to normal.

-g
 
If lightning use gas line to find earth ground, then your
building has serious earthing problems. Your example
demonstrates why earth ground is essential to human safety as
well as to transistor safety. This earthing is even requires
by the National Electrical Code (NEC).

Nothing on the PC was affected only because a path to earth
did not pass through the machine. Many think of lightning as
if it were a wave crashing on the beach. Lightning is more
like a flood - only taking paths downstream. In your case,
the shortest path downstream was gas lines - not acceptable.
Your earthing must be upgraded to meet or exceed post 1990 NEC
requirements.

Lightning is not capricious. It takes destructive paths
when humans do not provide non-destructive paths - as
demonstrated by Ben Franklin in 1752. UPS / surge protector
don't even claim to protect from this type of transient. How
do you know? Where is the short connection to earth ground?
No earth ground means the UPS / surge protector provides
nothing. Notice the smoke detectors and bathroom GFCIs that
were also protected by the same UPS? Must be if they were not
damaged ... or the rationalization that the UPS /surge
protector did anything is only speculation not based in
facts. Plug-in UPS does not even claim to provide such
protection.

Protection is earth ground. That is the fact. A surge
protector is nothing more than a connection from that cloud to
earth ground. Those plug-in solutions hope you never learn
what Ben Franklin demonstrated in 1752.
 
Back
Top