Computer died from lightning :( Help pls!

[cheesy999]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Also thats a myth about the (anything metal higher then the house). If its not properly grounded then its not effective. Thats why lighting loves AC units lol

if its stuck in the ground its grounded, don't know about AC as i don't have one, only AC i've ever known is on cars and that's not used 3/4 of the year

even so i think we should finish this discussion unless he's actually considering putting a lightning rod on his house

[thebluebumblebee]

To determine if it's a surge protector, look on the bottom. In the US, it has to say what it is and those are legal terms. The fact that nothing else attached to the same power source died gives me hope that the PSU "tripped" to protect the system and needs to be reset.
Yes, a surge can come in not only through the power, but by ANY conductor connected to the PC or even touching any conductor connected to a PC! A surge can jump cables. Neatness counts!

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by cheesy999

if its stuck in the ground its grounded

Is it now?

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthrea...95#post1026195

Originally Posted by thebluebumblebee

To determine if it's a surge protector, look on the bottom. In the US, it has to say what it is and those are legal terms. The fact that nothing else attached to the same power source died gives me hope that the PSU "tripped" to protect the system and needs to be reset.
Yes, a surge can come in not only through the power, but by ANY conductor connected to the PC or even touching any conductor connected to a PC! A surge can jump cables. Neatness counts!

Thats very true. Have you reset it yet?

[n-ster]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Is it now?
http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthrea...95#post1026195

NOOOOOOOO WAY !!!!! WTF

[ebolamonkey3]

Wow... thanks for all the reply guys!

The PSU in question is from another rig, not the one in my sig. It's an OCZ ModXtreme 700W. Part of me's kicking myself for using OCZ, but the other part of me's glad that it wasn't my Seasonic that got burned.

I'll stop by Microcenter on the way and pick up a multimeter, and probably test w/ a spare PSU/mobo when I get home if I can't reset the PSU/CMOS. Thanks for all the comments guys!

[laszlo]

as i know only a rod can protect a house electric stuff from being fried from lightning;even with a rod sometimes the intensity is so high that induce current in wiring

i have inserted ups for protection against power fluctuation but when is a big storm with lightnings the best protection is to pull of from wall everything.... otherwise bye-bye pc tv and everything ...

[cheesy999]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

Is it now?

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showthrea...95#post1026195

just so you know the reason the tree did that.

lightning is electrical charges in the air returning to the ground, thats why most lightning just moves across the sky, its charges equalizing

the tree was the route the lightning took to the ground, keep in mind lightning is not the power itself but the air molecules being separated by the transfer of charges(basically electrolysis mid air)

when the lightning hit the tree one end became massively charged, as the charged traveled through the tree, towards the ground, it got very hot(trees have a high resistance, unlike the metal lighting poles are made off), therefore they heat up fast as current pases through them)

as the tree was heated to incredibly high temperatures the water inside it started to boil and the pressure caused bits of the tree to burn or break off

If anyone when through the effort to read this they will be rewarded with a picture

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by cheesy999

just so you know the reason the tree did that.

lightning is electrical charges in the air returning to the ground, thats why most lightning just moves across the sky, its charges equalizing

the tree was the route the lightning took to the ground, keep in mind lightning is not the power itself but the air molecules being separated by the transfer of charges(basically electrolysis mid air)

when the lightning hit the tree one end became massively charged, as the charged traveled through the tree, towards the ground, it got very hot(trees have a high resistance, therefore they heat up fast as current pases through them)

as the tree was heated to incredibly high temperatures the water inside it started to boil and the pressure caused bits of the tree to burn or break off

If anyone when through the effort to read this they will be rewarded with a picture
http://www.uwec.edu/jolhm/EH3/Group2.../lightning.jpg

And then it traveled through the ground (Solid bed rock) and went UP through the houses grounding system. Something that in theory should be impossible. But.......like I said. Zeus wants your ass he will have it.

Originally Posted by n-ster

NOOOOOOOO WAY !!!!! WTF

Welcome to the real world.

[cheesy999]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

and went UP through the houses grounding system

that was incredibly bad luck for the owner, just how big was that lightning strike? 99% of the time the only lightning we get round where i live isn't even big enough to fry a cat, let alone a tree and most of a house

[westom]

Originally Posted by ebolamonkey3

I'll stop by Microcenter on the way and pick up a multimeter,

Best prices are in Wal-Mart. Meters are sold in most any store that also sells hammers. A good hammer usually costs more money.

[Batou1986]

Surge protectors only really save you from smaller surges on power lines like if lightning hits a main line 1mi from your house anything that hits very close to your house or lines is likely to fry whatever connected to it.

If there was a way to surge protect electronics do you think the cable/phone/power company's would constantly be replacing transformers, hubs, etc ?

As a side note the only thing that makes a UPS better is it will save your rig from brown outs which can do some serious damage.
If you have a high power draw rig "nvidia" stuff will pop like corn when it has a chance to strain to draw the power it needs instead of being turned off instantly in normal shutdown.

[theonedub]

If there is a lightning storm I pull the plug on my computer; if the forecast calls for lightning and I will not be home- its off once I am out the door.

EB3, you don't have a multimeter?! Shame

[westom]

Originally Posted by laszlo

as i know only a rod can protect a house electric stuff from being fried from lightning

A rod protects the building structure. Lightning to wires down the street is a direct lightning strike to appliances inside that house. Being powered off does not protection. Will a millimeters gap in a switch stop what three miles of sky could not?

Worry more about earthing a 'whole house' protector since that is the most common source of destructive surge energy. Lightning rods earth that surge so that another destructive but less frequent connection to earth does not exist.

Lightning does not cause a tree to explode because water boils. Lightning can ignite sugars inside a tree. Lightning acts like a spark plug in the car. A spark plug is not the major energy source. Spark plug simply ignites that energy - just like sugars in a tree sometimes are explosive.

Well more than 95% of all trees struck by lightning have no appreciable indication. Exploding tree is a rare event.

All is irrelevant to the OP's problem. First a defect must be identified before fixing anything. And before knowing why his failure happened.

[cheesy999]

Originally Posted by theonedub

If there is a lightning storm I pull the plug on my computer; if the forecast calls for lightning and I will not be home- its off once I am out the door.

EB3, you don't have a multimeter?! Shame

if there is a lightning storm i just carry on as normal, the trick to beating a storm is not showing weakness, and if it tries to get you - then punch it!!!

Also, how can anyone not have a multimeter, their amazing

Originally Posted by westom

Lightning to wires down the street

also how does that work, in the uk most electrical wires are underground, only the telephone wires and the high voltage long distance power cables are above ground, and their much less likely to cause damage

are things done differently with regards to electricity over in america?

[theonedub]

Originally Posted by cheesy999

also how does that work, in the uk most electrical wires are underground, only the telephone wires are above ground, and their much less likely to cause damage

are things done differently with regards to electricity over in america?

Transmission lines are usually above ground. Depending on the age of your neighborhood the electricity and phone lines might be buried (newer) or might be overhead (older).

[TheMailMan78]

Originally Posted by cheesy999

if there is a lightning storm i just carry on as normal, the trick to beating a storm is not showing weakness, and if it tries to get you - then punch it!!!

Also, how can anyone not have a multimeter, their amazing




also how does that work, in the uk most electrical wires are underground, only the telephone wires and the high voltage long distance power cables are above ground, and their much less likely to cause damage

are things done differently with regards to electricity over in america?

All lines in Florida are above ground due to ground density. Ever dig through petrified coral? Anyway you have to understand we have a LOT more land to cover also. Above ground is far cheaper and faster. Plus the UK is not really a lighting capital. You need to look more at France for a better idea.

Florida on the other hand is second to none in over all strikes. At least to the last report I read. As a matter of fact there is a storm right now as I type this.

[westom]

Originally Posted by cheesy999

also how does that work, in the uk most electrical wires are underground, only the telephone wires and the high voltage long distance power cables are above ground, and their much less likely to cause damage

Makes little difference whether wires are overhead or underground.

UK has so little lightning. Any good surge protection system means never any surge damage. But effective protection rarely exists in the UK. BT does not even earth a 'whole house' protector inside the Master Socket. Protectors have always existed at every subscriber interface throughout North America.

[cheesy999]

Originally Posted by TheMailMan78

All lines in Florida are above ground due to ground density. Ever dig through petrified coral? Anyway you have to understand we have a LOT more land to cover also. Above ground is far cheaper and faster. Plus the UK is not really a lighting capital. You need to look more at France for a better idea.

Florida on the other hand is second to none in over all strikes. At least to the last report I read. As a metter of fact thier is a storm right now as I type this.

Originally Posted by theonedub

Transmission lines are usually above ground. Depending on the age of your neighborhood the electricity and phone lines might be buried (newer) or might be overhead (older).

I now know more about the strange land known as America, where pc's are cheap and mobile phone reception is poor. And thank you for your wide and limitless electrical knowledge


Now back to the thread
i recommend you test your psu with a psu tester (there about a fiver on-line if i remember) , and they do all the plugs at the same time to save time

I also recommend a lightning rod for your home to protect against future strikes, and moving to a place with less storms

Edit:Another lightning picture just cause they break up the long blocks of text that make up this thread

[niko084]

Lets bring back a little old school knowledge here.

Surge protectors wear out, and when they wear out most of them stay working... The good ones stop working once they wear out and the REALLY good ones are REALLY expensive but don't wear out, they absorb and contain the power vs burning it up, issue if it's hit too hard they can start fires.

Anyways, do some reading up on different types of surge protectors, there are some big differences and a lot that claim to be great and cost the buck and aren't worth a dime!

That being said, you start with a new power supply, if it doesn't go, remove all your cards, all but one stick of ram, disconnect all your drives etc and try to get it to fire, switch the ram sticks out, test with known good ones if possible, jump the power pins vs using the button however highly unlikely *I normally tap them with a small screw driver*.

[ebolamonkey3]

Originally Posted by westom

You may have a perfect example of what a protector does when too close to appliances. All power supplies contain superior protection. But a power strip protector can bypass that protection. Can, for example, take out a power controller.

You have two choices. Keep replacing good parts on wild speculation until something works. Or spend a minute to learn what is defective before even disconnecting one wire. That means using a multimeter. A $17 tools so *complicated* as to be sold even to Kmart shoppers. One minute to get three digit numbers from six wires. Post them. Have a complete answer in the next reply that says what is and is not bad - without any speculation.

Set the meter to 20 VDC. Attach the black lead to the chassis. Touch its red probe to a purple wire that connects the PSU to the motherboard. It should read about 5 volts (with the computer off but connected to AC mains). Post all three digits. Do same for the green and gray wires both before and when the power switch is pressed. And finally, monitor any one red, orange, and yellow wire as the power switch is pressed. What do those wires do?

Next reply will answer definitively. May also say why something failed. Was it a surge? Or was it something else? If you only swap parts (shotgun), then you will not learn why failures happen. Not learn from the experience. Not learn how computers really work. Buy or borrow a meter. Have a solution immediately. Learn what caused a failure. Save time. And save money.

Here's what I got:

Color: Off On
Purple: 5.16 5.16
Green: 4.11 4.10
Gray: 0.00 0
Red: 0.00 0
Oj: 0.00 0
Yellow: 0.00 0

Nothing happens when I press the power button. Guess the PSU's completely fry'd.

So now test w/ a new PSU, onboad vga, and a single stick of ram?

[Funtoss]

Dude!? how the hell lOl anyways if its dead then time to upgrade to a new one? !! but check if some parts work?

[westom]

Originally Posted by ebolamonkey3

Here's what I got:
Color: Off On
Purple: 5.16 5.16
Green: 4.11 4.10
Gray: 0.00 0
Red: 0.00 0
Oj: 0.00 0
Yellow: 0.00 0

Nothing happens when I press the power button. Guess the PSU's completely fry'd.

PSU is providing a full 5 volts to a power controller. When a power button is pressed, the Green wire must drop to less than .7 volts. It doesn't. Therefore the power supply controller never orders the PSU to power on.

Either the power supply controller is defective. A safety lockout has tripped. Or one of its inputs do not work.

The controller has a lockout protection feature. Reset that by disconnecting the power cord from the wall receptacle for two seconds. Try again.

Possible that a power switch is somehow disconnected. IOW measure between two power switch wires (use paper clips or sharp pins if necessary to probe those connections). Those wires should measure something approaching 5 volts (probably about 4.xx volts). When the switch is pressed, that 5 volts should drop to less than 0.7 volts. If no 5 volts, wires from switch to power controller may be broken or the power controller is destroyed.

Or you have an inevitable reality. Power controller was destroyed by a surge. A power strip protector did what is quite common when too close to electronics and too far from earth ground. It connected a surge into and through the motherboard. Completely bypassed protection inside the PSU. Destroyed a power controller on the motherboard.

Either the power controller lockout protection circuit was tripped. Inputs (ie power switch) was somehow damaged. Or the power controller itself was destroyed. So how would a surge get there? Happens when a protector is too close to electronics and too far from earth ground.

Finally, what those numbers report. The Purple wire is power only for electronics in a power controller. When the power switch is pressed, the temporary short tells the power controller to power on the PSU. A Green wire drops to less than 0.7 volts. The power supply increases voltages on all red, orange, and yellow wires. After about a second, the PSU reports all voltages OK by raising the Gray wire voltage to something well above 2.4 volts. The power supply controller does other checks. If power controller finds any problems (gray wire or others), then it immediately powers off the PSU. (Your never saw the red, orange, or yellow wires move.) Otherwise the power controller next tells the CPU to execute the BIOS.

Since the Green wire does not drop to near zero, then PSU cannot do anything. Since red, orange, and yellow wires did not rise, then all problems lie in the power controller or its inputs (ie switch).

[Wrigleyvillain]

I was just thinking the other night during a T Storm how I should probably unplug everything but really didn't want to stop using my PC and thought to myself "I know it getting zapped is possible but I sure don't hear about it much". And here we go...

[n-ster]

lets hope everything else is fine... Where is your Seasonic PSU?