I could use some help.

[Ghoest9]

I had a lightning strike - everything was protected except the DSL cable.
The modem made a zap noise(followed by distant thunder) but everything kept running ok, then I quicklyshut everything down an unplugged it.

My system is
gigabyte P34-DS3R
Core2 Duo (8400 I think)
1 hard drive
1 DVD reader/burner
win XP
geforce 9800
Thermaltake 700W PSU

What happens now when I try to turn it on is it make the 1 short beep for a good start up then shows the gigabite boot screen like normal but then it seems to begin restarting again. the monitor turns off and the process repeats.
The whole time the CPU fan stays on.

I can stop the load up and look at the bios before it restarts.

I tried putting a different vid card in,(Im not sure the vid card works but the cucle remains the same so I doubt it the vid card.)

Ive tried booting it with nothing connected but the cycle remains the same.

I tried taking out either stick of ram ad keeping one in the first slot - same cycle.


So what do you think is probably wrong? And what would you do?
thanks

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Try resetting the bios by removing the battery

 

[MRCL]

If you have access to another PSU, try that. Last time my PC did what yours does, my PSU was dieing.

Or what jmc said. Thats always a good idea.

 

[Kreij]

I had lightning come in through my 56K modem years ago. Fried almost everything in the case.
Homeowner's insurance FTW !!

 

[hat]

Your motherboard probably took a hit when a surge went through the DSL modem and through the ethernet cable.

Did you try each stick of memory individually? Did you try clearing the CMOS?

I don't think it's his power supply because he said the cpu fan spins.

 

[Ghoest9]

I took th battery out and shorted it - nothing changed.

I tried both mem sticks one at a time.

I really doubt its the PSU because I can get into the BIOS and it seems to be fine if I stop there(and all the fans run). Its what ever the box does next thats causing it to restart.

 

[hat]

What happens when you leave the optical drives and hard drives unplugged?

 

[keakar]

What happens when you leave the optical drives and hard drives unplugged?

that would be my guess, maybe it hit the hdd and thats the zap you heard

something was shorted to make that zap noise (unless it blew a cap on the board and that you would be able to see fairly easy) so if the psu and board are ok then look to the hdd next, if you have access to anothercomputer try plugging it in on another computer to see if it works and the data shows up.

 

[Ghoest9]

I tried disconnecting disconnecting the hard drive and the optical drive. It does the same thing except the cycle became about a second and a half shorter according to my stop watch timing the interval between on beeps. it looks like the time removed occured during the gigabyte bios splash screen.

That seems to suggest that its a check after bringing on the drives thats turning it off.

Any more ideas?

On a side note the zap was fairly quite and I think it occured in the DSL modem. I assume some sort of suge made it into the PC but it it probably wasnt a dramtic physical event.

 

[Ghoest9]

Ok Ive found that by disabling
"ONBARD H/W LAN" in the bios the I can have the computer boot and run.

If I buy a PCI internet card now should that solve my problem?

 

[Mussels]

Ok Ive found that by disabling
"ONBARD H/W LAN" in the bios the I can have the computer boot and run.

If I buy a PCI internet card now should that solve my problem?

if you buy a new network card (its not called an internet card) then yes, the problem would be solved.


Its possible more damage has been done to the PC, but you wont know without trying - and PCI network cards are cheap.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

http://3btech.net/ddf10faetpci.html