Lightning Strikes!

[Jon Green]

Hi all,

 

On Friday I returned home after a hard days work to find that my wireless internet modem / router thingy wasn't working... I jumped in the car and shot off to PC world and bought a replacement netgear wireless router / ADSL modem. Excellent, I thought expecting to switch it on and be back up and running. That fixed the broadband connection problem but when I came to turn on my desktop machine nothing happened. I took the cover off and had a look inside and found that the telephone modem which usually runs an answering machine had a chunk out of the computer chip (fried).... next I had a look at my network printer and found that was also damaged...

 

Im guessing that the telephone network was struck by lightning near the house and the surge through the phone lines has fried everything that was connected to it. I have a surge protector on the mains electric but not on the telephone line.

 

Fortunately I have a works laptop so I can still get online but I have loads of stuff on the hard drive of my PC and no way to retrieve!

 

Just got to wait for the insurance company to get back to me now.

 

Winge over!

 

Ps. if you've not got any surge protection on your PC have a look at getting some... it's a lot cheaper than replacing everything!

[Guest allenr03]

Jon

 

Get a USB drive caddy, about £20 tops, and stick you PC's hard drive in it. You'll be able to access it through your laptop assuming the drive isn't damaged.

 

With regards to the surge protector you can get versions that protect your telephone line, coaxial cables, network cables and power, they don't cost much more to be honest and are well worth it. They are like burglar alarms though, people don't bother fitting them until after the event!

 

Rich

[Jon Green]

Thanks Richard... Just bought one on ebay!

 

Any idea if any of my other bits like the monitor, mouse and keyboard would be stuffed too? I've no way to test them and I want to be sure that if the insurance company accept my claim, I don't miss anything that should have been replaced.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

[BigLee]

Rest should be OK You should be able to plug monitor into your laptop and check that.

[Guest micky bigthumbs]

My insurance company wont insure computers for lightening damage...i was struck 2 years ago took two pcs and all the phones so check your insurance

[Guest macca]

Thanks Richard... Just bought one on ebay!

 

Any idea if any of my other bits like the monitor, mouse and keyboard would be stuffed too? I've no way to test them and I want to be sure that if the insurance company accept my claim, I don't miss anything that should have been replaced.

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

 

Cant you test them on your lap top too? I use a larger monitor for my lap top when in the office.

Failing that, a friend or another member could test them.

 

I'd be tempted to push for a whole new computer from the insurance, keyboard and monitor included.

 

I was lucky, only our adsl router fried last year, BT supplied a new 1.

Edited June 25, 2007 by macca

[Guest keith12]

Always use surge protection on all you electrical equipment IE :- TV DVD VIDIO etc, Its not just down to lightning if your cable in your road looses the neutral you get voltage spikes in excess of 2000 V thus damaging any fragile equipment be warned.

I have been to many blocks of flats and houses where the TVs have blown.

[Guest timswait]

Your hard drive will most likely be fine, so either get a caddy as Richard says or plug it into a freind's computer.

i was struck 2 years ago took two pcs and all the phones

Why doesn't that suprise me?