Lightening strikes computer - what damage did it cause?

**Praetor** · 10-15-2004, 03:17 PM

Quote:

But if you buy a desktop from dell, you will go to hell!

Again, all OEMs have their nightmare stories

da_ezman · 10-17-2004, 05:59 PM

Lightning surge will go wherever it wants. There are precautions you can take but there's no controlling lightning. If you suspect a laptop, desktop or ANY electronic devise has taken lightning damage, best bet is to settle with your insurance and replace the unit. Electronic components that lightning doesn't take out instantly, are weakened severely and will just be a matter of hours or days before more failures rear their ugly heads. Best to replace any suspected lightning damaged devises.

**Praetor** · 10-19-2004, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Electronic components that lightning doesn't take out instantly, are weakened severely and will just be a matter of hours or days before more failures rear their ugly heads

Well thats a bit of a doomsday approach

tonsofpcs · 10-27-2004, 04:55 AM

What Computer Man5 says about Dell is very true.

Now, what seems to have happened [imho] is there was still a charge in the fried modem [possibly all the capacitors were supercharged], the machine it was in probably had its power supply blown on the initial shock, there was probably more power coming down the line that didn't ground properly. You connected it to the notebook, and it tried searching for a ground. It found one, through the mother board, to the battery, and if it was plugged in, down the power supply. As da_ezman says, lightning damaged components should be taken as lost until properly grounded, reset to an uncharged state, and tested with equipment that you don't care about, or that can handle a lightning strike (ya, like you got alot of that around)

ansr · 10-29-2004, 06:38 PM

Re. Carl's laptop failure: there's no way charge from the lighning itself could hang around for several days. I agree that if lightning damaged the modem, the modem, in turn, could damage the USB port, and, in particular, could apply enough power to the laptop's circuitry to break something crucial. However, I strongly suspect the laptop could be repaired: it's unlikely to be "gutted". Perhaps the cost-to-benefit of the repair isn't great enough. In that case, you might well be able to rescue data (assuming you weren't backed up?) by putting the hard drive in another machine.

Re. criticism of Dell hardware in this thread: I've used and supported several Dell machines, both laptops and desktops over the past 8 years, and have found them to be of uniformly very good (to excellent) engineering design and robust construction. Now, if only Dell hadn't outsourced and destroyed their phone-in tech support...

4W4K3 · 10-30-2004, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ansr

Re. criticism of Dell hardware in this thread: I've used and supported several Dell machines, both laptops and desktops over the past 8 years, and have found them to be of uniformly very good (to excellent) engineering design and robust construction. Now, if only Dell hadn't outsourced and destroyed their phone-in tech support...

Agreed, DELL's are excelent first time user computers. They function well, and don't have any severe flaws for the average user. For my taste they aren't functional enough (no overclocking, not very compatible wih other hardware). But setting aside my overclocking/upgrading fever, my Dell laptop is great...no probs whatesoever. I don't recommend them for hard-core gamers, or people who want the latest and greatest, but i do suggest them for the average user who just want an e-mail/internet computer.

**Praetor** · 10-31-2004, 12:33 AM

Quote:

Now, if only Dell hadn't outsourced and destroyed their phone-in tech support...

Not that the phone support was useful or anything.

Super_Nova · 11-09-2004, 08:16 PM

I use to work in the same building as Dell's Tech Support. It has always been outsourced. The only difference is they moved the outsourcing overseas. All you had to do to be on the team was pass a simple test and go through 2 weeks of training. One guy they were training broke the CPU of the training PC trying to cram it the wrong way into the ZIF socket. I however did not work on the Dell Team. I was on the H&R Block taxcut team. Dell however had Half the building. The other half had us, brother, and minolta. That call center unfortunatly went out of business right before Dell moved overseas. I wonder why

This is why every time I saw a Dell commercial where it showed Dell's Tech support being provided by a Dell employee at a Dell facillity I laughed because I knew if was full of crap. Of course they're commercials are always full of crap. Like the guy "Makeing a new hard drive" for a Dell. Did they wander into the Western Digital or Maxtor plant on their tour of Dell? Better get them out of there that's a clean room!!!!

10-29-2004, 06:38 PM	#15 (permalink)
ansr New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Los Alamos, NM Age: 61 Posts: 3	Lightning damage; Dell computers Re. Carl's laptop failure: there's no way charge from the lighning itself could hang around for several days. I agree that if lightning damaged the modem, the modem, in turn, could damage the USB port, and, in particular, could apply enough power to the laptop's circuitry to break something crucial. However, I strongly suspect the laptop could be repaired: it's unlikely to be "gutted". Perhaps the cost-to-benefit of the repair isn't great enough. In that case, you might well be able to rescue data (assuming you weren't backed up?) by putting the hard drive in another machine. Re. criticism of Dell hardware in this thread: I've used and supported several Dell machines, both laptops and desktops over the past 8 years, and have found them to be of uniformly very good (to excellent) engineering design and robust construction. Now, if only Dell hadn't outsourced and destroyed their phone-in tech support...

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10-17-2004, 05:59 PM	#12 (permalink)
da_ezman New Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 24	Lightning surge will go wherever it wants. There are precautions you can take but there's no controlling lightning. If you suspect a laptop, desktop or ANY electronic devise has taken lightning damage, best bet is to settle with your insurance and replace the unit. Electronic components that lightning doesn't take out instantly, are weakened severely and will just be a matter of hours or days before more failures rear their ugly heads. Best to replace any suspected lightning damaged devises.

10-27-2004, 04:55 AM	#14 (permalink)
tonsofpcs New Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 9	What Computer Man5 says about Dell is very true. Now, what seems to have happened [imho] is there was still a charge in the fried modem [possibly all the capacitors were supercharged], the machine it was in probably had its power supply blown on the initial shock, there was probably more power coming down the line that didn't ground properly. You connected it to the notebook, and it tried searching for a ground. It found one, through the mother board, to the battery, and if it was plugged in, down the power supply. As da_ezman says, lightning damaged components should be taken as lost until properly grounded, reset to an uncharged state, and tested with equipment that you don't care about, or that can handle a lightning strike (ya, like you got alot of that around)

11-09-2004, 08:16 PM	#18 (permalink)
Super_Nova Gold Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Memphis, TN Age: 30 Posts: 440	I use to work in the same building as Dell's Tech Support. It has always been outsourced. The only difference is they moved the outsourcing overseas. All you had to do to be on the team was pass a simple test and go through 2 weeks of training. One guy they were training broke the CPU of the training PC trying to cram it the wrong way into the ZIF socket. I however did not work on the Dell Team. I was on the H&R Block taxcut team. Dell however had Half the building. The other half had us, brother, and minolta. That call center unfortunatly went out of business right before Dell moved overseas. I wonder why This is why every time I saw a Dell commercial where it showed Dell's Tech support being provided by a Dell employee at a Dell facillity I laughed because I knew if was full of crap. Of course they're commercials are always full of crap. Like the guy "Makeing a new hard drive" for a Dell. Did they wander into the Western Digital or Maxtor plant on their tour of Dell? Better get them out of there that's a clean room!!!!