At 01:22 PM 07/13/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>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?

Yes, lots of times.

"Generally", what I've found, (your results may vary), is that in the
instances like you've mentioned, the modem, (modem/sound card combo, if it
were), motherboard, (and any "onboard" components) and video card, (less
often, but enough to add here). "Usually", there will also be scrambled
data on the hard drive, which may result in a need to, at the least, fomat
and re-install the OS... sometimes replace the HD itself. I have just such
a case on my bench right now, (HP Platinum Supreme 1850). As the storm
rolled in, she had the kids unplug the computer.. which they did...
unplugged the power. Big crack of lightning in her backyard. She goes to
look to see if the kids pulled it, they had left the telephone line
connected. Most of our telephone lines are underground and it seems very
susceptible to lightning hitting trees and grounding into the ground. Upon
starting the machine after the storm, the power comes on, but the computer
doesn't even post. After taking it apart and checking all the components, I
had a "good" pile and a "bad" pile. The good pile consisted of: the cdrom &
floppy drive. The power supply did light the case lights and processor fan,
but I would be very suspicious of it in the future. As was mentioned
before... it turned out to by pretty much mush. In the last month, I have
seen 11 such machines go past my bench... all with pretty much the same
results. Best thing to do, pull all components, make sure the power supply,
memory and vid card (just a habit... you can still find out a few things
without it) are attached. Does it post? If yes, add floppy drive (with boot
disk), hard drive, sound card, modem and anything else they have... one at
a time. Check each to see if it gets seen by the bios, (if listed). If the
MB doesn't post... put each component in a known good computer, to see if
it's workable. I do agree that in most cases, it pretty much a total loss
and "most" insurances cover it. Some need special riders or photos, but if
they throw a fit, it time to find another insurance company... after all...
the computer is almost as common nowdays as the microwave and cable.

                                                        Harlen Linke

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