Freak lightning strike

[GirsMJ86]

well we finally got some rain around this place. nothing hard just a steady drizzle. :D . but i was sitting behind my $2k hp laptop listening to music getting ready to go get a dew when all of a sudden i hear a REALLY loud pop sound and my screen goes black, along with the dvd rom making weird sounds :eek: but the laptop itself was still running. well i turned it off and back on and still doing it. so i had to take it downstairs and rip the hdd and battery out of it before it would work again. but then as time went on and i wanted to listen to music i find out my sound card got fried :eek: . so i decide to get online and see how much a new one would cost for it and i find out my modem got fried too :eek: . so i am stuck useing my moms $300 POS Dell desktop that is slower then crap. we have dial up internet but my laptop would have a 4MB file downloaded in 5mins, but this thing is taking 1hr. this is going to be hard to get use to while i am useing it. i have to see if my dvd rom still works or not yet, if it doesnt then i am not fixing it and i will just take a loan out or something to buy a newer hp or sager one :cheers: . :headpop: :hateputers:

 

Alex

[Hot Rod Jeep]

I fried the modem on this computer about 5 months ago when a bolt of lightening hit a barn accross the road. It wasn't even storming bad, just BOOM and no more modem. I watched the barn burn to the ground. It was just used for storage so no animals were harmed. I got pics somewhere of it, I'll see if I can find them. 8)

[beaterjeep]

Wow man, that sucks, I've had it happen before too. Although at the time I didn't have any sort of surge preotector, and fried everything inside. Had to get a whole new computer, and surge preotectors of course.

[Pete M]

Apparently my hand-me-down 'puter doesn't need any fancy-schmancy lightning to break down. :hateputers:

[Stumpy]

dang that sucks ..not only that you paid $2k for a HP...lol i've had 3 HP/Compaq desktops and never again.

everytime it starts to rain here i unhook the power and cat5 cable.

[mjeff87]

Had a lightning strike in my backyard about 20 ft off my deck last spring....had to change my shorts when it happened. It sounded like someone let off with a 30-06 in my kitchen. LUCKILY, the house has GFCI outlets that caught the surge. They burned up but the house didn't :D We lost a microwave, TV, and a VCR (plus 3 of 4 outlets), and fried the underground cable from the box in the yard to the house. The cable co had to come out and run all new line. Seems the lightning hit a tree, traveled down into the ground right where the service line cuts across the backyard into the meter.

 

If you don't have ground fault receptacles, get some. I'm convinced they ended up saving almost everything we own...

 

Jeff

[GirsMJ86]

If you don't have ground fault receptacles, get some. I'm convinced they ended up saving almost everything we own...

 

i would look into those except the fact that this surge came through the phone lines like the first time it happened about 4 years ago. only 4 years ago it hit our windmill right next to the house, jumped across to the boxes on the side of the house, blew them apart and burned the sideing, then blew apart the boxes that were inside the house. that time it fried my moms desktop, killed a few tvs, and killed almost all the surge protectors but those didnt help any since it was a direct hit.

 

Alex

[Hot Rod Jeep]

These aren't great, they're from my phone. I've got some better ones from a regular camera, but I'll have to scan them. 8)

[87manche]

well we finally got some rain around this place. nothing hard just a steady drizzle. :D . but i was sitting behind my $2k hp laptop listening to music getting ready to go get a dew when all of a sudden i hear a REALLY loud pop sound and my screen goes black, along with the dvd rom making weird sounds :eek: but the laptop itself was still running. well i turned it off and back on and still doing it. so i had to take it downstairs and rip the hdd and battery out of it before it would work again. but then as time went on and i wanted to listen to music i find out my sound card got fried :eek: . so i decide to get online and see how much a new one would cost for it and i find out my modem got fried too :eek: . so i am stuck useing my moms $300 POS Dell desktop that is slower then crap. we have dial up internet but my laptop would have a 4MB file downloaded in 5mins, but this thing is taking 1hr. this is going to be hard to get use to while i am useing it. i have to see if my dvd rom still works or not yet, if it doesnt then i am not fixing it and i will just take a loan out or something to buy a newer hp or sager one :cheers: . :headpop: :hateputers:

 

Alex

let me know what parts you need. Modems aren't that expensive. Unless it damaged the mainboard it's worth repairing.

[GirsMJ86]

let me know what parts you need. Modems aren't that expensive. Unless it damaged the mainboard it's worth repairing.

 

it is an hp ze5400 cto. let me know how much a new modem and sound card runs. just need cheap things as i am going to give it to my dad since insurance is replaceing it.

 

it happened at my moms house so she called them. they said that with laptops it is replacement. so i am going to luck out and get a newer better one. found one on circuit city that is 2 times better then the one that got fried for only 1400. it has 2x the memory, 3x the hard drive space, way better graphics card, lightscribe dvd burner, built-in microphone and webcam, and a much better dual processor.

 

incase anyone wants to look at this one yourself it is the only dv9000 for 1400 (1349 after rebates) on cicuitcity.com. should have the money for my old one this week, then my new one once circuit city gets them in.

 

Alex