Re: My PC was hit with lightning and now Microcenter is looking at it.

Leythos <void@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

In article <1184149665.142071.313360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
gabedog@xxxxxxxxx says...
My PC was hit with lightning and now Microcenter is looking at it. I
replaced the Video card, but that's not it. It's probably the hard
drive or the motherboard.

Your PC was not directly hit by Lightning, at least I'm assuming that
much, but was hit by a surge on either the AC line or a Modem line.

Typically this does not fry the Drives or CPU or RAM, but it will fry
the motherboard and any card/device the surge rode in on.

A Quality UPS would have prevented this.

I'm afraid this is a naive statement for several reasons.

For one, many UPS's actually have less voltage surge energy handling
than quality surge suppressors (these are rated in Joules, APC specs
these for comparison). Compare a Backups Pro 650's surge rating to,
say, a Surgearrest Pro strip.

Second, when it comes to lightning, no little bits of MOV are going to
defeat the energy in a close lightning strikes voltage signature
induced on the lines. Without knowing whwere the OP lives, how their
power is fed, the geography of the area, where the strike was, saying
unqualified "a quality ups would have prevented this" is foolish.

Finally it's not terribly uncommon to take the hit via an attached
modem telephone cable, or a network cable coupled to a cable modem or
DSL line. Electric lines are typically far more succeptible because
in areas of overhead lines, they're far more exposed and uninsulated
on the distribution end, but few people implement any MOV protection
at all on their phone lines, co-ax, or network cables.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/
.

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