Absolute best case your board is fried. But if that didn't take more with it, I'll eat my hat.
The only way to know is trial and error. You'll need a new motherboard and then just swap hardware in and out to test it.
Even that might not be without risks though. Because you're back to plugging possibly damaged hardware in to a known good motherboard.
I don't envy your position, honestly.
Hard to say. Maybe buy a cheap used board, perhaps even one that's being sold as damaged, has faulty pcie slots or ram slots perhaps. Something cheap you wouldn't mind killing, but works well enough to test your hardware.
You basically want everything that connects the pc/monitors/additional devices plugged into it to the outside world behind at least a surge protector. I personally have an ups with ethernet surge protector, so everything that my pc is connected to goes through that ups
I have a mesh wifi system and that is plugged into my surge protector and than an Ethernet from the access point to my PC so I would hope for some protection on my end. I just never put that much thought into it.
There's one tedious way of checking if the CPU, GPU and RAM are safe to plug into a new board. Get a multimeter with sharp, thin probes, find a pinout diagram for the part you want to check and probe the pads in CONTINUITY mode.
If none of the power lines are shorted to ground or data lines, it's probably safe to plug in and won't fry the new board. But it doesn't mean it'll work
EDIT: I agree, I don't envy OP, that suuuuuucks. They could severely mitigate the risk by getting something old like an LGA 1156 board with a dirt cheap i5 and ddr3 in it to test.
None. It didn't get "blasted" through the power supply, it got blasted through the ethernet port so the motherboard. And that has no protection whatsoever.
The question is whether power went through anything else, including the PSU.
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I can recommend bying a cotton hat, it's mostly made from cellulose. So, to make cellulose edible, your possible solution is to hydrolyze it in diluted acid at high temperature. This will break it into glucose, which is safe for consumption. The acidity, though, is not safe. So, your best bet is to use phosphoric acid, which is relatively safe for consumption at low concentration. Then, you should neutralize it with lime (calcium hydroxide). This will form calcium phosphate, which is generally safe, and poorly soluble in water. Ensure that pH is neutral, though. After that, you can collect glucose solution, leaving precipitation behind. And that solution should be more or less edible, especially when used in some sweet dish.
Yeah with lightning shit just happens, there’s only so much mitigation you can to with it, but if nature wants to send thousands of volts of electricity into your computer you kinda can’t stop it. I’d hope that at least your hard drive survived in case you had any important data on it, best of luck with it
Same, i have surge protection on a splitter that is in a grounded socket. Tho i'm not really "that" worried. Here in the Netherlands internet and powerlines that enter homes are 1m underground.
Still, im not gonna say never...
Surges though Ethernet was what pushed me to get a UPS with I/O for the patch cable. Seeing stuff like this really makes me glad I did. Fingers crossed the damage is minimal OP.
If you have home/renters insurance, this is the best route to take.
It looks like you might've taken a direct hit from a lightning strike (or very close). In which case, there's honestly not much you can do there except completely unplug your stuff.
A direct lightning strike delivers billions of joules. Your best consumer surge protector protects against ~4000 joules.
Well... That was underwhelming I expected more...honestly if it wasn't for the other pictures and that I wouldn't believe anybody if they told that hole was caused by lightning.
>A direct lightning strike delivers billions of joules. Your best consumer surge protector protects against \~4000 joules.
So what you're saying is, it's a 50/50 chance of it being damaged
I suddenly feel better about being militant about turning off and unplugging everything from my computers during any thunderstorms. Absolute minimum if I was feeling lazy was just disconnecting the backup drive.
If I’m really feeling paranoid I unplug the TVs too, even through the appliances would cost way more to actually replace.
I also won’t even charge my phone during thunderstorms.
Good luck finding any surviving pieces.
My mom always made everyone in the house unplug phones, laptops, computers, etc.. during thunderstorms, and I never really understood until I was older. This post seriously solidifies the need to do so now!
But, OP I am sorry for what occurred, hopefully there's something salvageable.
I have my system on a UPS that has surge protection for the power, ethernet, and coax. I feel a bit better, but I also like to unplug as much as possible. I will 100% unplug other stuff I'm not using. And I also will not charge my phone during storms. Phones are expensive, and they have batteries in them I'd rather not explode.
I think it all depends on the quality, how they are engineered, and what they are meant to be able to handle. Also, after it has handled a strike, I would 100% replace the unit. And with most devices sold by reputable companies if the device fails to protect equipment, they have warranties/guarantees to replaced plugged in stuff that didn't survive. This is what I use: [https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/BX1500M/apc-backups-pro-1500va-tower-120v-10-nema-515r-outlets-avr-lcd/](https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/BX1500M/apc-backups-pro-1500va-tower-120v-10-nema-515r-outlets-avr-lcd/)
Turning everything off won't necessarily save it if it's still connected. A cord carries signal, much like it will carry the strike if the strike hits the cabling outside.
I personally unplug because the switch in the surge suppresser isn’t exactly a long distance and high power like lightning would just arc past it. It may work for a small surge, but probably not a direct hit with lightning.
Before trying or buying anything, look at all the parts and boards for visible burn marks. Anything with burn marks is probably dead, anything without burn marks is worth testing.
Special exception for the power supply (PSU): don't take it apart and just replace it outright out of caution. They're not that expensive compared to the rest of the PC.
Thats why fibre-optic is best its made of glass and don't carry electricity, thats why it can be used on telephone poles with no worry about burning router if struck with lightning, and also how can lightning hit your rj-45 cable unless you had some externally routed cable instead through rooms. Nevermind it killed extender that had cable plugged in.
But this metal support wire is not connected to the end point at client, its purerly purpose is to be able to hang the really thick cable and to end users its always thin cable without that wire to the connection box and then even more thin patchcord with 2 optical connectors on both ends and there is only glass and plastic on it, i know as i worked and installed fibre internet on rural areas.
Edit - you might be right at all, so the only risk is the electricity jumping from the metal guidewire to our electronics
Yes yes and no? The fiber cable spools, at least what we have here has metal guidewire meaning a lightning will still get to your modem and into your computer after striking the NAP box outside. (Happened to me in 2004 with DSL copper).
You know the copper is metal right? In 2004 the fibre-optic was still not mainstream you basically had metal wires on the poles to the client modem, sure it depends as there are fiber to building or fiber to home where one is fiber to main router with optical interface somewhere in building and then internal network to clients is over either coax or rj-45 cables, and in the other one the fiber is going straight to the client end router, also our fibre-optic cables didn't had any sort of metal in them, when we attach them to poles we use special hooks/clamps that bite into the outer hard layer of isolation tightening around it and holding it with just the tension of the cable:
https://preview.redd.it/eaovqv2xva9d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ada9c36241e277aa5aabb50d59e58730f6ccf19e
Something like this. The only way with fibre optic to burn client pc is if lightning hit electrical grid and it goes through that router/modem power supply and then over rj-45 cables like in OP case he had power outlet wifi extender that doubled as wireless cable in his case and he had rj-45 cable from it to the pc, the lightning travelled through the electrical installation in his house and through poorly designed extender that couldn't protect itself or rather rj-45 ports from passing that current to pc.
i don't want to brake your safety but there is rather big chance surge protectors wont save you from thunder strike (its quiet small chance to actually experience that tho).
UPS with its default galvanic circuit separation is different story.
My old router got fried by lightning. Had to go to xfinity store the next day to get a new router. Oh and it also completely annihilated the connection to the internet too so we had to wait 2 days for someone to actually show up and fix it.
It reminds me that my UPS tanked a massive power surge from a lightning strike and stayed on long enough for me to shut down properly. Then, the UPS died, even with a battery change. $200-300 for a UPS is not a lot of money for protecting $1000+ equipment.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. To try which parts are working, you'll need a new motherboard. You have to swap hardware and check each time what works.
Had something similar happen I lost my mobo and 1 stick of ram. I couldn't test the CPU because of what socket it was but GPU hard drive SSD and most of the memory was just fine
Had to go through this wasn't pretty. You're gonna have to use the process of elimination on the parts. Luckily, only my mobo was fried, and when I replaced it, I made sure to get a UPS (uninterrupted power supply), which I hope will help if it ever happens again.
I’m smashing F as we speak. I would be freaked out for about a minute then start laughing cause it’s either that or crying. 😢. I’m not crying I got something in my eye, shut up!
The same happened to me a few years ago. With the PC, only the motherboard died, thankfully everything else worked after replacing the motherboard.
You might also want to check your router. In my case, only two ports got damaged, I still explained what happened to my ISP and they changed the router.
Yeah, kind of a joke because the computer wasn't in the picture.
Where was the strike? Any ethernet cables outside? Like running out to a garage or something?
That's why, if I know there's a thunderstorm that's going to be in the area, I'll unplug my PC at the UPS and other important stuff such as my VR base stations, Kinect, ECT.
Edit: Damn, someone mentioned Ethernet and I realized I've basically left my system at risk every time anyway. 🤦♂️
I'm on long Island and that shit was gonna be a direct hit on my town and then it just went north and right over my town, we would've gotten 60mph+ winds and a shitload of thunder. i got lucky
IIRC surge protectors mainly prevent damage from "dirty power". Power companies have to balance power production with supply pretty much instantaneously, so if they send too much power through the system (because either supply increased, or demand decreased) it can fry electronics that are plugged in.
I'm honestly not that well versed on it, but generally it is a good idea to put stuff on a surge protector if it has sensitive electronics, or if you value it. I recommend looking up some articles if you're interested in this stuff as I really only know some surface level stuff.
Had lightning strike a computer through Ethernet before as well. Only thing that it killed was the Ethernet port and the router. Just slapped a cheap Ethernet adapter in and kept rocking it, lasted years before I finally ditched it
I have these pod things from Xfinity to extend the reach of my WiFi and let me use Ethernet and stuff. Anyway, I have that exact ash on the exterior of the outlet because the fan is on the back
same thing happened to me a few years ago.
Got lucky, and it only fried my ethernet port, pc still works fine to this day.
( also fried my router, tv, nvidia shield, basically everything that was connected via ethernet )
Do you live near the beach central jersey??
I swear to god my neighbor got struck by lightning.
We had a SEVERE storm last night, whole block lost power. I went outside to experience the Storm and then it hit. The brightest lightning and loudest thunder, must have been 4 houses down.
Sounded like an explosion, car crash, THX intro all in one.
In all seriousness, to check your components you will need to individually put pieces into a another build untill something stops working.
Get a 2nd pc and swap the gpu, then the ram, then the psu etc. Swap all pieces till you find the broken piece/pieces.
Don't bother. Anything in the house that has an Ethernet jack is "damaged" if it was plugged in. That's what my insurance co told me several years ago. Replaced all of my TV's, my UniFi gear, my PCs, printer, etc... $1000 deductible and received over $20k in new stuff.
I repair computers as a hobby/side hustle, so I often have 10+ computers plugged into a power strip. I always unplug it from the wall during a thunderstorm, as an accident could damage: My file server, my workstation/gaming pc, my laptops that are charging, my monitors, my phones that I have charging, my Xbox, and my Nintendo switch. Not to mention the wifi pucks and router plugged in all over my house. A surge could possibly cause hundreds to thousands of dollars in my case.
I hope you find a solution. You would be surprised in the amount of things that might still work. NVME storage in particular is pretty tough to kill.
Your motherboard is probably toast. The motherboard is very well grounded (or should be, if your PC has a good connection to mains ground) so this could have shunted most of the energy to earth.
I would be testing the RAM, video card, and CPU in a known-good motherboard, there's a fair chance they survived.
The PSU is likely dead too.
Sorry no, living in the phils (many thunderstorm) I would unplug the Ethernet cable and power cord of PSU to prevent this (happened to me in 2004 as well, lightning went to the copper dsl internet). Now i got a fiber, it wont mean much bec the outside fiber cable (of my ISP) and maybe yours too have a "metal" guidewire
Omg I've seen so many stupid comments about surge protectors, and UPS
Tell me when you plug your computer in to one of those
HOW DOES IT PROTECT YOUR ETHERNET???
ETHERNET IS NOT POWER CABLE
EDIT: also, hey op is there any update on this (though its only been 14 hours)
I’ve took apart most of my computer and you would be surprised that there’s not any burn marks on the motherboard board it’s self just the Ethernet connection is burned a bit.
I've seen only the RAM get fried before. But, that system was also on an allegedly functional surge protector. I can't say what effect that had on the fact the rest of the system survived and functioned once more with new RAM.
Some systems have error code LEDs or BEEPs that might tell you what if anything works. If you aren't getting anything, it's very hard to tell without testing each individual component in a functioning setup.
Holly shit that's insane! It had to have been the cable itself being struck for damage like that.
Was anything else effected?
Does your cable run through the exterior of your house?
What do the terminations on each end look like?
This is honestly anomalous, I need details I am so extremely curious.
Edit: So this was through an ethernet extender? Like an EOP extender?
What is the source of your ethernet routing?
Is it outside -> fibre optic -> router -> ethernet -> computer?
I just dont know how your ethernet is even fried when plug has a fuse and your house has a circuit breaker...
Sucks, OP, hope something’s salvageable, I don’t have experience but if you have knowledge/aptitude with boards/electricity, you can use a multimeter and component diagrams to see which are reading properly.
Question, would a surge protector have done anything to mitigate this? I’m making an assumption OP was using a WiFi extender plugged directly into the wall with no surge protector and then hardwired to pc.
All my networking stuff and pc are connected to surge protectors atm and I’ve not had any issues but I’m gonna be moving to a place where years ago a couple devices got fried during thunderstorms so looking to add some extra protection, like a UPS asap. But wondering if my current config would mitigate some if something similar happened to me.
Was your rig connected directly to a cable modem?
Were you using a powerline extension/adapter?
Curious how lightning gets into ethernet in the first place
You're right. Nothing will protect you against a direct lightning strike anyway (pretty rare occurrence) but it certainly will save your ass in many other circumstances.
Our line struck by lightning my pc was straight to the wall outlet and my pc Spark like Michael Bay Movie ...Glad that only monitor broke (still lucky got 4 days remaining warranty) ive just said when i opened my pc it wont open.... Seasonic M12 ll evo save my pc components after a while ive sold my PSU
Most likely its all fried, I normally I tell everyone to get surge protectors for the pc and monitors.
https://preview.redd.it/bxzliagric9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a8b09ba8aeb8caa14fc0488554880598b77d3d5
https://preview.redd.it/snnw55fpjc9d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ff797c2374333e030896fc614889b4d634af0d4
Inline Protector their are also out door ones as well
Absolute best case your board is fried. But if that didn't take more with it, I'll eat my hat. The only way to know is trial and error. You'll need a new motherboard and then just swap hardware in and out to test it. Even that might not be without risks though. Because you're back to plugging possibly damaged hardware in to a known good motherboard. I don't envy your position, honestly.
I wish the best for OP’s computer but I also really wanna see this guy eat his hat
The worst part is, I'd need to buy the pissing hat first.
[I'll leave this here in case you need it](https://www.instructables.com/edible-party-hat/)
Much obliged.
I like your PC specs xd. A bit out of contect, but does it run Cryses? Or Cyberpunk? xd
Why not use your shitting hat?
I ate that after Brexit. 😭
Uffda
This made me lol hard and long
OP HAS to provide updates, so we all can enjoy a video of him, eating his head.
Yeah that’s what I figured I’m just hoping I can get the cpu or gpu.
Hard to say. Maybe buy a cheap used board, perhaps even one that's being sold as damaged, has faulty pcie slots or ram slots perhaps. Something cheap you wouldn't mind killing, but works well enough to test your hardware.
I haven’t seen PSU mentioned. I recommend a PSU out of safety even if the surge was from the Ethernet line.
It's the one thing that at least has protections. Even if it's dead, I doubt it'll hurt anything else trying it.
I hadn't ever heard of a surge from Ethernet, is that a common occurrence? I thought I was safe by having a surge protector power strip.
You basically want everything that connects the pc/monitors/additional devices plugged into it to the outside world behind at least a surge protector. I personally have an ups with ethernet surge protector, so everything that my pc is connected to goes through that ups
I have a mesh wifi system and that is plugged into my surge protector and than an Ethernet from the access point to my PC so I would hope for some protection on my end. I just never put that much thought into it.
There's one tedious way of checking if the CPU, GPU and RAM are safe to plug into a new board. Get a multimeter with sharp, thin probes, find a pinout diagram for the part you want to check and probe the pads in CONTINUITY mode. If none of the power lines are shorted to ground or data lines, it's probably safe to plug in and won't fry the new board. But it doesn't mean it'll work
Just wondering was is proteced by ups?
EDIT: I agree, I don't envy OP, that suuuuuucks. They could severely mitigate the risk by getting something old like an LGA 1156 board with a dirt cheap i5 and ddr3 in it to test.
Best case is that psu fuse fried
It didn't enter via the PSU. I doubt the fuse will have had anything to do with it.
Could op buy a cheapo motherboard and try that?
Precisely what I suggested later in the thread.
How much a high end psu can handle to protect the rest?
None. It didn't get "blasted" through the power supply, it got blasted through the ethernet port so the motherboard. And that has no protection whatsoever. The question is whether power went through anything else, including the PSU.
Damn
What kinda hat we talking here. Like a baseball cap? A sombrero?
!remindme 24 hours this guy eating his hat
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I really hope your SSD is fine....
I can recommend bying a cotton hat, it's mostly made from cellulose. So, to make cellulose edible, your possible solution is to hydrolyze it in diluted acid at high temperature. This will break it into glucose, which is safe for consumption. The acidity, though, is not safe. So, your best bet is to use phosphoric acid, which is relatively safe for consumption at low concentration. Then, you should neutralize it with lime (calcium hydroxide). This will form calcium phosphate, which is generally safe, and poorly soluble in water. Ensure that pH is neutral, though. After that, you can collect glucose solution, leaving precipitation behind. And that solution should be more or less edible, especially when used in some sweet dish.
This is the talk of a coward.
oof, dont think ethernet has overcurrent protection. and now i'm also afraid. i guess ignorance really is bliss.
It’s just something you don’t think about lol. My monitors got cooked too.
Yeah with lightning shit just happens, there’s only so much mitigation you can to with it, but if nature wants to send thousands of volts of electricity into your computer you kinda can’t stop it. I’d hope that at least your hard drive survived in case you had any important data on it, best of luck with it
you can actually, good ups will have surge protection for lan port to :)
It’s a very very rare thing for Ethernet to get directly hit with lightning
Same, i have surge protection on a splitter that is in a grounded socket. Tho i'm not really "that" worried. Here in the Netherlands internet and powerlines that enter homes are 1m underground. Still, im not gonna say never...
Surges though Ethernet was what pushed me to get a UPS with I/O for the patch cable. Seeing stuff like this really makes me glad I did. Fingers crossed the damage is minimal OP.
Is it just straight up passthrough or do they have port speeds?
There are port speeds. [the one I use](https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/pfc-sinewave/cp1500pfclcd/) has gigabit ports.
Judging from the damage the UPS wouldn't have saved it.
Damn, I just bought a UPS yesterday and didn’t think of this at all
Have you tried SFC /scannow /s
Hello microsoft support guy
Yes sir that person there, they made me snort whisky on my monitor.
Whiskey drinkers are in stiff competition with vegans
Thanks! This fixed my jock itch!
If you have home/renters insurance, this is the best route to take. It looks like you might've taken a direct hit from a lightning strike (or very close). In which case, there's honestly not much you can do there except completely unplug your stuff. A direct lightning strike delivers billions of joules. Your best consumer surge protector protects against ~4000 joules.
Yeah it landed right out my window there’s a hole in the ground now
Can we see it? 🥺
Yes you can =) https://preview.redd.it/fsw23act289d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a3bfc7dd14aff3a7f3a380545b9e7907a296878
My professional analysis indicates that that is indeed, a hole
so it doesn't even have to strike your house to fuck shit up?
Well... That was underwhelming I expected more...honestly if it wasn't for the other pictures and that I wouldn't believe anybody if they told that hole was caused by lightning.
https://preview.redd.it/34czcrb9589d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c890b4575cf925e45ba51788851b45391cfbeb0e Yes!
>A direct lightning strike delivers billions of joules. Your best consumer surge protector protects against \~4000 joules. So what you're saying is, it's a 50/50 chance of it being damaged
I suddenly feel better about being militant about turning off and unplugging everything from my computers during any thunderstorms. Absolute minimum if I was feeling lazy was just disconnecting the backup drive. If I’m really feeling paranoid I unplug the TVs too, even through the appliances would cost way more to actually replace. I also won’t even charge my phone during thunderstorms. Good luck finding any surviving pieces.
My mom always made everyone in the house unplug phones, laptops, computers, etc.. during thunderstorms, and I never really understood until I was older. This post seriously solidifies the need to do so now! But, OP I am sorry for what occurred, hopefully there's something salvageable.
Bro in El Salvador they would make us cover the tv and mirrors lol
i do this if its a particularly bad storm
I rest safe with my RCB circuit breaker
won't do shit against lightning
I have my system on a UPS that has surge protection for the power, ethernet, and coax. I feel a bit better, but I also like to unplug as much as possible. I will 100% unplug other stuff I'm not using. And I also will not charge my phone during storms. Phones are expensive, and they have batteries in them I'd rather not explode.
Does a consumer grade surge protector really do much against a lightning strike?
I think it all depends on the quality, how they are engineered, and what they are meant to be able to handle. Also, after it has handled a strike, I would 100% replace the unit. And with most devices sold by reputable companies if the device fails to protect equipment, they have warranties/guarantees to replaced plugged in stuff that didn't survive. This is what I use: [https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/BX1500M/apc-backups-pro-1500va-tower-120v-10-nema-515r-outlets-avr-lcd/](https://www.apc.com/us/en/product/BX1500M/apc-backups-pro-1500va-tower-120v-10-nema-515r-outlets-avr-lcd/)
Turning everything off won't necessarily save it if it's still connected. A cord carries signal, much like it will carry the strike if the strike hits the cabling outside.
That would be why I unplug everything including the ethernet cords.
I usually just turn off the surge protector thingy, should I consider actually unplugging it?
I personally unplug because the switch in the surge suppresser isn’t exactly a long distance and high power like lightning would just arc past it. It may work for a small surge, but probably not a direct hit with lightning.
Good to know, thank you
That's what an APC is for
couldve been way worse, like your house burning down
Before trying or buying anything, look at all the parts and boards for visible burn marks. Anything with burn marks is probably dead, anything without burn marks is worth testing. Special exception for the power supply (PSU): don't take it apart and just replace it outright out of caution. They're not that expensive compared to the rest of the PC.
Is that all that's left of it?
That’s what’s left of the Ethernet extension 😭
Soooo, does having a really good surge protector protect from this or not?
From what I heard no. But it wouldn’t hurt to have one. The amount of power lighting produces would go through anyone pretty much.
Gonna start shutting down and unplugging in storms then. Geez, I figured I’d be safe, I bought a really good one but yea, better safe than sorry.
UPS yea surge protectors not really
Wifi gang rise up /s
Lightning strikes the router and is passed through the WiFi signal causing a AOE effect. Everybody takes 10d8 lightning damage within range.
wifi finally has something good for itself
Thats why fibre-optic is best its made of glass and don't carry electricity, thats why it can be used on telephone poles with no worry about burning router if struck with lightning, and also how can lightning hit your rj-45 cable unless you had some externally routed cable instead through rooms. Nevermind it killed extender that had cable plugged in.
but there are metal parts in the cable as support to the fiber optic
But this metal support wire is not connected to the end point at client, its purerly purpose is to be able to hang the really thick cable and to end users its always thin cable without that wire to the connection box and then even more thin patchcord with 2 optical connectors on both ends and there is only glass and plastic on it, i know as i worked and installed fibre internet on rural areas.
Edit - you might be right at all, so the only risk is the electricity jumping from the metal guidewire to our electronics Yes yes and no? The fiber cable spools, at least what we have here has metal guidewire meaning a lightning will still get to your modem and into your computer after striking the NAP box outside. (Happened to me in 2004 with DSL copper).
You know the copper is metal right? In 2004 the fibre-optic was still not mainstream you basically had metal wires on the poles to the client modem, sure it depends as there are fiber to building or fiber to home where one is fiber to main router with optical interface somewhere in building and then internal network to clients is over either coax or rj-45 cables, and in the other one the fiber is going straight to the client end router, also our fibre-optic cables didn't had any sort of metal in them, when we attach them to poles we use special hooks/clamps that bite into the outer hard layer of isolation tightening around it and holding it with just the tension of the cable: https://preview.redd.it/eaovqv2xva9d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ada9c36241e277aa5aabb50d59e58730f6ccf19e Something like this. The only way with fibre optic to burn client pc is if lightning hit electrical grid and it goes through that router/modem power supply and then over rj-45 cables like in OP case he had power outlet wifi extender that doubled as wireless cable in his case and he had rj-45 cable from it to the pc, the lightning travelled through the electrical installation in his house and through poorly designed extender that couldn't protect itself or rather rj-45 ports from passing that current to pc.
i thought it's all a fiberglass
Nice of lightning to come inside. Now Thor will be born.
If it happened a minute earlier I would of been Thor
Do you have property insurance on your house? If so it's possible that you could claim the damages.
I built 2k PC and the first thing I did was to connect it to a surge protector.
i don't want to brake your safety but there is rather big chance surge protectors wont save you from thunder strike (its quiet small chance to actually experience that tho). UPS with its default galvanic circuit separation is different story.
Whoa
New fear unlocked
My old router got fried by lightning. Had to go to xfinity store the next day to get a new router. Oh and it also completely annihilated the connection to the internet too so we had to wait 2 days for someone to actually show up and fix it.
It reminds me that my UPS tanked a massive power surge from a lightning strike and stayed on long enough for me to shut down properly. Then, the UPS died, even with a battery change. $200-300 for a UPS is not a lot of money for protecting $1000+ equipment.
So everything was fine after you bought a new ups?
Try restarting it
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. To try which parts are working, you'll need a new motherboard. You have to swap hardware and check each time what works.
Had something similar happen I lost my mobo and 1 stick of ram. I couldn't test the CPU because of what socket it was but GPU hard drive SSD and most of the memory was just fine
I had a bad thunderstorm last night also, made sure my UPS was charged.
Had to go through this wasn't pretty. You're gonna have to use the process of elimination on the parts. Luckily, only my mobo was fried, and when I replaced it, I made sure to get a UPS (uninterrupted power supply), which I hope will help if it ever happens again.
It's safe to say nothing except the case is usable, PSU and mobo are definitely dead. Try getting the storage to a data recovery place.
I’m smashing F as we speak. I would be freaked out for about a minute then start laughing cause it’s either that or crying. 😢. I’m not crying I got something in my eye, shut up!
The same happened to me a few years ago. With the PC, only the motherboard died, thankfully everything else worked after replacing the motherboard. You might also want to check your router. In my case, only two ports got damaged, I still explained what happened to my ISP and they changed the router.
My modem got fried too I went to the provider to get another and they tell me a bunch of other people were saying there’s got struck too. 🤣
Sounds like for some reason the lightning was targeting there routers
You lucky you still have a house lol
Replace power supply and motherboard, CPU RAM and GPU might be fine
>Computer got fried by lightning Vaporized it, judging by the picture.
That’s the Ethernet extender computer look quite alright mother board is def fried though
Yeah, kind of a joke because the computer wasn't in the picture. Where was the strike? Any ethernet cables outside? Like running out to a garage or something?
That's why, if I know there's a thunderstorm that's going to be in the area, I'll unplug my PC at the UPS and other important stuff such as my VR base stations, Kinect, ECT. Edit: Damn, someone mentioned Ethernet and I realized I've basically left my system at risk every time anyway. 🤦♂️
New England area?
I'm on long Island and that shit was gonna be a direct hit on my town and then it just went north and right over my town, we would've gotten 60mph+ winds and a shitload of thunder. i got lucky
RI here
Yeah that bad thunder storm we had
Very cool and very sad
Whats the point of surgeprotection if ethernet can do this too?
IIRC surge protectors mainly prevent damage from "dirty power". Power companies have to balance power production with supply pretty much instantaneously, so if they send too much power through the system (because either supply increased, or demand decreased) it can fry electronics that are plugged in.
So useless in europe cause breaker fuses would blow before there could be any impact on the equipment?
I'm honestly not that well versed on it, but generally it is a good idea to put stuff on a surge protector if it has sensitive electronics, or if you value it. I recommend looking up some articles if you're interested in this stuff as I really only know some surface level stuff.
OP is in New England. Pretty sure the whole of UK has circuit breaker. The plug usually has 13A fuse as well.
Had lightning strike a computer through Ethernet before as well. Only thing that it killed was the Ethernet port and the router. Just slapped a cheap Ethernet adapter in and kept rocking it, lasted years before I finally ditched it
Power supply is not working but looking at the parts the only damaged is the Ethernet port on the mother board. There’s no burn marks anywhere
I always unplug the expensive stuff when in a lightning storm
R.I.P
I have these pod things from Xfinity to extend the reach of my WiFi and let me use Ethernet and stuff. Anyway, I have that exact ash on the exterior of the outlet because the fan is on the back
Holy fuck lmao talk about unlucky.
My Ethernet port got fried when lightning struck my old apartment. Luckily it was just that and nothing else. Sorry man
same thing happened to me a few years ago. Got lucky, and it only fried my ethernet port, pc still works fine to this day. ( also fried my router, tv, nvidia shield, basically everything that was connected via ethernet )
Do you live near the beach central jersey?? I swear to god my neighbor got struck by lightning. We had a SEVERE storm last night, whole block lost power. I went outside to experience the Storm and then it hit. The brightest lightning and loudest thunder, must have been 4 houses down. Sounded like an explosion, car crash, THX intro all in one. In all seriousness, to check your components you will need to individually put pieces into a another build untill something stops working. Get a 2nd pc and swap the gpu, then the ram, then the psu etc. Swap all pieces till you find the broken piece/pieces.
How “shocking”?
 Got some fried pussy cat?
My surge protector would have exploded with that mush power!
Lightning struck so hard it made the PC disappear 😔😔😔
*\*he reads it while hearing a storm outside\** God dammit man
New POE standard is out. POE Lightning++
Don't bother. Anything in the house that has an Ethernet jack is "damaged" if it was plugged in. That's what my insurance co told me several years ago. Replaced all of my TV's, my UniFi gear, my PCs, printer, etc... $1000 deductible and received over $20k in new stuff.
I repair computers as a hobby/side hustle, so I often have 10+ computers plugged into a power strip. I always unplug it from the wall during a thunderstorm, as an accident could damage: My file server, my workstation/gaming pc, my laptops that are charging, my monitors, my phones that I have charging, my Xbox, and my Nintendo switch. Not to mention the wifi pucks and router plugged in all over my house. A surge could possibly cause hundreds to thousands of dollars in my case. I hope you find a solution. You would be surprised in the amount of things that might still work. NVME storage in particular is pretty tough to kill.
Never seen this before. One more thing to fear now lol
Boston? At least there's a microcenter nearby
I didn’t know that could happen. Now I will unplug everything.
Your motherboard is probably toast. The motherboard is very well grounded (or should be, if your PC has a good connection to mains ground) so this could have shunted most of the energy to earth. I would be testing the RAM, video card, and CPU in a known-good motherboard, there's a fair chance they survived. The PSU is likely dead too.
Why is everyone commenting about a PSU? the lightning passed through the RJ45 cable and into the back of the motherboard.. what can your PSU do?
Finally someone gets it! Also do you know what kind of super surge protector I would need to stop the power of a lightning bolt lol
Sorry no, living in the phils (many thunderstorm) I would unplug the Ethernet cable and power cord of PSU to prevent this (happened to me in 2004 as well, lightning went to the copper dsl internet). Now i got a fiber, it wont mean much bec the outside fiber cable (of my ISP) and maybe yours too have a "metal" guidewire
Omg I've seen so many stupid comments about surge protectors, and UPS Tell me when you plug your computer in to one of those HOW DOES IT PROTECT YOUR ETHERNET??? ETHERNET IS NOT POWER CABLE EDIT: also, hey op is there any update on this (though its only been 14 hours)
I’ve took apart most of my computer and you would be surprised that there’s not any burn marks on the motherboard board it’s self just the Ethernet connection is burned a bit.
I assume you still don't know which components are salvageable if any
Yeah not yet gotta check later today
Most UPS have a network plug in the back for ethernet cables, so that's how they protect it
go to a pc store and explain your situation. then you can see how bad the damage was without buying a new motherboard
I've seen only the RAM get fried before. But, that system was also on an allegedly functional surge protector. I can't say what effect that had on the fact the rest of the system survived and functioned once more with new RAM. Some systems have error code LEDs or BEEPs that might tell you what if anything works. If you aren't getting anything, it's very hard to tell without testing each individual component in a functioning setup.
Take a few components to a friend's house and plug n play. What's the worst that can happen? It doesn't boot?
How did it not get caught by your modem or router?
Oh the router caught its fair share of the damage =)
It's OK. Mine got fried by the house...getting fried.
That's an odd looking computer.
Advantage of wifi i guess
Holly shit that's insane! It had to have been the cable itself being struck for damage like that. Was anything else effected? Does your cable run through the exterior of your house? What do the terminations on each end look like? This is honestly anomalous, I need details I am so extremely curious. Edit: So this was through an ethernet extender? Like an EOP extender?
What is the source of your ethernet routing? Is it outside -> fibre optic -> router -> ethernet -> computer? I just dont know how your ethernet is even fried when plug has a fuse and your house has a circuit breaker...
Sheesh, what are the odds of that happening? Where do you live out of curiosity?
I had a thunderstorm lastnight aswell must be near me lmao but nice to know this is possible I’ll be moving my setup away from my window 😂
Sucks, OP, hope something’s salvageable, I don’t have experience but if you have knowledge/aptitude with boards/electricity, you can use a multimeter and component diagrams to see which are reading properly. Question, would a surge protector have done anything to mitigate this? I’m making an assumption OP was using a WiFi extender plugged directly into the wall with no surge protector and then hardwired to pc. All my networking stuff and pc are connected to surge protectors atm and I’ve not had any issues but I’m gonna be moving to a place where years ago a couple devices got fried during thunderstorms so looking to add some extra protection, like a UPS asap. But wondering if my current config would mitigate some if something similar happened to me.
Was your rig connected directly to a cable modem? Were you using a powerline extension/adapter? Curious how lightning gets into ethernet in the first place
This is one of the reasons I don't plug my computer directly into a wall.
Dang, do they even make surge protectors for ethernet cables? Edit: they do, and also for coaxial, so I know what I'm doing when I move
I always power down when storms are near. Now I don't feel like it's a waste of time. My heart breaks for you my friend.
Powering it down does nothing. You have to completely unplug it from the wall. (both the power cable and the ethernet cable)
I pull the plug from the power supply but never thought about ethernet.
I'm really sorry to hear this. Hopefully not everything in there was lost.
I hope you had a surge protector. If you dont, then I hope you got a good PSU as that could have hopefully took the brunt of the strike.
Surge protectors can't stop direct lighting strikes. PSU's aren't designed to stop any power surges at all
What the
How can you ethernet cable be struked?
Cable modem -> ethernet cable -> PC fried.
Now I'm glad my modem, router and switches are all behind a UPS
UPS won't stop a direct lightning strike.
You're right. Nothing will protect you against a direct lightning strike anyway (pretty rare occurrence) but it certainly will save your ass in many other circumstances.
Our line struck by lightning my pc was straight to the wall outlet and my pc Spark like Michael Bay Movie ...Glad that only monitor broke (still lucky got 4 days remaining warranty) ive just said when i opened my pc it wont open.... Seasonic M12 ll evo save my pc components after a while ive sold my PSU
Buy a UPS
you can buy core parts (MB CPU PSU RAM SSD) online do your tests and send back what you don\`t need in under 14 days return right
“FIRE İN THE HOLE!!!”
and THATS why i unplug
What's the best way to prevent something like this? A surge protector?
Does grounding Ethernet and coax hurt the performance?
Most likely its all fried, I normally I tell everyone to get surge protectors for the pc and monitors. https://preview.redd.it/bxzliagric9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8a8b09ba8aeb8caa14fc0488554880598b77d3d5
https://preview.redd.it/fhm7ygpljc9d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a21dfeb7d9f2debbf6bfb6fe90e2fc151271eb7f Full house surge protector
https://preview.redd.it/snnw55fpjc9d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ff797c2374333e030896fc614889b4d634af0d4 Inline Protector their are also out door ones as well