Had a very bad thunderstorm last night and my Ethernet cable was struck. It sent god knows how much power through my Ethernet cable into my motherboard. Computer won’t start. How would I be able to check what parts are salvageable. It was so much power that it exploded the Ethernet extender I had plugged in. (Picture above)
28 Comments
Absolute best case your board is fried. But if that didn’t take more with it, I’ll eat my hat.
The only way to know is trial and error. You’ll need a new motherboard and then just swap hardware in and out to test it.
Even that might not be without risks though. Because you’re back to plugging possibly damaged hardware in to a known good motherboard.
I don’t envy your position, honestly.
oof, dont think ethernet has overcurrent protection. and now i’m also afraid. i guess ignorance really is bliss.
I suddenly feel better about being militant about turning off and unplugging everything from my computers during any thunderstorms. Absolute minimum if I was feeling lazy was just disconnecting the backup drive.
If I’m really feeling paranoid I unplug the TVs too, even through the appliances would cost way more to actually replace.
I also won’t even charge my phone during thunderstorms.
Good luck finding any surviving pieces. .
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. To try which parts are working, you’ll need a new motherboard. You have to swap hardware and check each time what works.
Surges though Ethernet was what pushed me to get a UPS with I/O for the patch cable. Seeing stuff like this really makes me glad I did. Fingers crossed the damage is minimal OP.
Had something similar happen I lost my mobo and 1 stick of ram. I couldn’t test the CPU because of what socket it was but GPU hard drive SSD and most of the memory was just fine
Thats why fibre-optic is best its made of glass and don’t carry electricity, thats why it can be used on telephone poles with no worry about burning router if struck with lightning, and also how can lightning hit your rj-45 cable unless you had some externally routed cable instead through rooms. Nevermind it killed extender that had cable plugged in.
I had a bad thunderstorm last night also, made sure my UPS was charged.
Before trying or buying anything, look at all the parts and boards for visible burn marks. Anything with burn marks is probably dead, anything without burn marks is worth testing.
Special exception for the power supply (PSU): don’t take it apart and just replace it outright out of caution. They’re not that expensive compared to the rest of the PC.
Have you tried SFC /scannow
/s
Had to go through this wasn’t pretty. You’re gonna have to use the process of elimination on the parts. Luckily, only my mobo was fried, and when I replaced it, I made sure to get a UPS (uninterrupted power supply), which I hope will help if it ever happens again.
If you have home/renters insurance, this is the best route to take.
It looks like you might’ve taken a direct hit from a lightning strike (or very close). In which case, there’s honestly not much you can do there except completely unplug your stuff.
A direct lightning strike delivers billions of joules. Your best consumer surge protector protects against ~4000 joules.
Is that all that’s left of it?
Nice of lightning to come inside. Now Thor will be born.
couldve been way worse, like your house burning down
Whoa
Do you have property insurance on your house? If so it’s possible that you could claim the damages.
Your motherboard is probably toast. The motherboard is very well grounded (or should be, if your PC has a good connection to mains ground) so this could have shunted most of the energy to earth.
I would be testing the RAM, video card, and CPU in a known-good motherboard, there’s a fair chance they survived.
The PSU is likely dead too.
It’s safe to say nothing except the case is usable, PSU and mobo are definitely dead. Try getting the storage to a data recovery place.
I’m smashing F as we speak. I would be freaked out for about a minute then start laughing cause it’s either that or crying. 😢. I’m not crying I got something in my eye, shut up!
Wifi gang rise up /s
The same happened to me a few years ago. With the PC, only the motherboard died, thankfully everything else worked after replacing the motherboard.
You might also want to check your router. In my case, only two ports got damaged, I still explained what happened to my ISP and they changed the router.
Soooo, does having a really good surge protector protect from this or not?
You lucky you still have a house lol
Replace power supply and motherboard, CPU RAM and GPU might be fine
>Computer got fried by lightning
Vaporized it, judging by the picture.
