Ok, so a month or two back my desktop was the unfortunate recipient of a lightning strike… Sadly I haven’t been able to start trouble shooting it before now since I work on site for the season, and the desktop isn’t with me.
So, in an attempt to cut down the time I need to actually troubleshoot what is wrong with this thing I figured I would ask the helpful members on this forum.
What I’m looking for is tips for software or just general troubleshooting for hardware. My first thought is that the PSU is botched at this point, which would make sense given the type of damage this is. It would also correspond to some of the issues I am having (trouble booting, and crashes at times). That said, I have no idea how to actually troubleshoot this other than just getting a new one (or borrow one) to test. It could also be other components as there was another PC in the house that literally just got everything in it fried.
I have no clue where to start to be honest, and I don’t really have the time to trial and error this when I actually have the time to sit down and work with it. I do however have access to all compatible components for a limited time whenever I need it though. Just don’t know how to check if that was the one component that is bad or not.
Then, start looking in event log and seeing what caused the crashes. If you see that every single error at the time of crashing its GPU related, then you can go forward with troubleshooting that, for example by taking out the GPU and testing
Also try things like memtest86+ and hdsentinal to find problems with specific hardware
You start with the basics and work your way up, that’s the simpliest way to go. Cutting corners usually means that you’ll spend more time as you can’t really narrow down whats faulty.
Get a known working PSU
Disconnect everything except the bare essentials to get the computer booting (CPU, one stick of RAM and a known working video card (only if the CPU lacks integrated graphics))
Run memtest86+ for few hours, if that passes add another stick and do the same until you have verified that all sticks checks out and the computer operates as intended (boots fine etc).
If you’re seeing issues at this level (which I wouldn’t be surprised about) I would suspect that motherboard being at fault and possibly other components as well but since you’re running a barebones setup you’d be able to rule out a bunch of unnecessary components easily.
Replace the motherboard and try again, if it’s still wonky you can narrow it down to the CPU and/or memory
Replace either of those and try again
If that checks out, connect your boot drive and run a long SMART test off a Linux LiveCD. If that checks out your storage device is probably fine. I say probably as it wont necessarily detect silent corruption but in most cases it’ll list errors for other tests.
If that checks out that, install a fresh version of Windows or whatever OS you use and go from there
I think this will be your go no-go point.
If I was a betting man Id lean toward new PSU and then no post and a list of MB related physical blown areas. Or the old PSU could have taken the brunt well and it comes back to life w a new one just fine.
Hmm… lots of great advice here. I’ll note it all down for when I again have time to sit down with the thing.
Some information about the actual event though:
The lightning strike sent a surge through an unused phone line that was supposed to be disconnected by the provider (we now use fiber so no need for the old copper lines).
At the same time as it literally blew the wall sockets 5 meters out into the room it seems to have jumped over to the cat5e local network that is set up in the house.
The computer that was closest to this at the time had it’s surge protector fried and melted, as well as all components except storage media fried.
My own computer is the another 10m away from this all, and I mostly am stuck with booting issues and some minor stability issues. Trouble is I have no idea if it came through the network or the power lines. That said, given that the 2 switches that were placed between mine and the other computer are both fried or non operable in some manner I tend to think it probably went into the motherboard before the PSU.
Now, that said I still don’t really know and will be following the procedures that has been suggested so far to me.