-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Johnson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 7:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] Lightning strike!


A good friend just called me this morning saying his computer (an
HP Pavilion Pentium III) won't start. There was a whopper of a
lightning storm last night. You've heard the story before, right?

I asked if he had it plugged in to his UPS - no. Was the modem
connected too?, I asked - yes. The phone on the same desk was
destroyed, he told me. He's going to check guarantee coverage.

I haven't seen the toast yet and know that lightning is a very
mysterious thing, but . . . What have you all seen of this sort of
damage? Could it be that it only fried the power supply and the
modem? It'd be a shame if the MB and/or processor and/or monitor
got cooked.

Gracias,

Eric

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Terrible stuff!

If lightning has destroyed anything close to the computer, suspect that the
whole computer is unserviceable.

One lightning strike (personal experience) destroyed 9 terminals connected
to a mainframe.  A serial cable for a small UNIX system ran parallel to, but
a short distance away from, the cable to the mainframe terminals.  The
effects of the UNIX box:

1.      the serial ports were cooked.
2.      the UNIX box seemed to work, but would crash for no reason,
something it had never done before.

The solution:  replace everything!!!

Mike

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