At 01:22 PM 07/13/2000 , Eric Johnson 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?
>
>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.

You are asking us to speculate without any symptoms beyond it
will not start.  That is difficult to do in this case.   But, with that
said, the odds are very great that it is a complete waste.  A small
spark of static electricity is enough to fry most parts inside a PC,
including the CPU, motherboard, ram, hard drives and so forth...
the modem is probably the least of his worries if the lightning passed
through the PC.

Most home owner insurance policies will cover lightning damage
to a PC, at least that is what I have found here in the US.  You
might have him check to see if they have insurance.

      Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group

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