Computers and lightning

You know how you are often told that, when a storm comes, you should turn off your computer (and other devices) and also unplug it from the wall? That's good advice. That is very, very good advice. Says the man who didn't follow it ...

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  • What happened? How much damage? Hope everything's alright!
  • What happened? Glad you asked! Hear now my tale of woe ...

    There have been three major thunderstorms in my area in the past two weeks. And by "major," I mean tree limbs and whole trees down, flash flooding, traffic disruptions and tens of thousands of people without power for days on end. Like my neighbors three blocks away, who were in the dark for three days.

    It happened again Thursday. It was raining so hard, I thought I was at the bottom of the ocean. The lights flickered for a moment, but came back on. But when we tried to operate the computer, it wouldn't start, no matter how many times we tried. We took it in to Staples on Friday, and got the bad news Saturday: The motherboard and hard drive are fried like breakfast at Denny's.

    Did I have a surge protector on it? Yeah, for what it's worth, which is nothing.

    Backups? Well ... yeah, kind of. I did have an external drive, but it was full -- it was an older one, with only about 80g capacity -- so I hadn't made any recent backups. I have pretty much anything that was more than a year old, including my tax files. And I put last year's taxes on a different external drive rather than on the main computer. And I have a second computer, an older, slow Compaq I bought used from my workplace. Why that one didn't get fried -- it was in the same room, but not plugged into the same outlet -- I don't know.

    E-mail? I use AOL for e-mail -- terribly unhip, I know -- but, following my wife's lead, a long time ago stopped using the program on my desktop and read it on AOL's website.

    Photos? Well, my older photos are on the backup drive; my more recent photos I had copied to the computer, but, procrastinators that we are, didn't remove them from the digital camera. In fact, I discovered that I had copied all of them again to the other computer because some of them were corrupt.

    In fact, I was up into the wee small hours of the morning Friday copying video from my newly acquired Flip camera to that older computer and then to CD and DVD drives. Good thing, because now the older computer is acting up because the drive in that one is full ... bang head
  • Sorry all that happened! Hope things are better now! But it does show us that nature trumps technology, no matter how we improve or upgrade it!
  • Ugh. That sucks. I'm glad you still have your photos, at least!
  • Thanks!

    So ... now that I'm in the market for a new computer, any recommendations? I did a little browsing at two stores yesterday, and was surprised that every model offered Windows 7. I've heard nothing but terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things about Windows 7, and I thought Windows Vista was the latest thing. (MacIntosh? Tell me Macs don't get struck by lightning, and we can talk. Otherwise, no.)

    We were interested in two seemingly equal models, a Dell and a Gateway. I've used Dells for a while and like them, but I'm willing to consider others. Compaq's customer service (and fees for same) leaves bad memories, but I don't know if they are better or worse since the merger with Hewlett-Packard. When I asked the salesman how do models rate, he said Dell is a little better because they do more quality control before they send them out, but then he started talking up the extended warranty plan, no matter how many times I tried to ask where HP or others place on the ladder.

    One thing he did say that caught my attention: He claimed that most computers are made in China and, to keep costs down, things like the modem and sound card are integrated into the motherboard for models under $1,000, so if there's a problem it's easier -- if you have the extended warranty, of course -- to just take it back to the store and let them give you another one than to fix it. Does that sound true?
  • Probably, with time, parts and labor costs. replacing seems cheaper than repairing. And there isn't a wait!
  • So ... now that I'm in the market for a new computer, any recommendations? I did a little browsing at two stores yesterday, and was surprised that every model offered Windows 7. I've heard nothing but terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things about Windows 7, and I thought Windows Vista was the latest thing. (MacIntosh? Tell me Macs don't get struck by lightning, and we can talk. Otherwise, no.)

    I've been using Windows 7 pretty much since the week it came out, and I have had no problems at all with it. It was the easiest conversion I have made yet on a Windows upgrade (I was upgrading from XP), and I am far from any kind of computer whiz. I have several other friends who are using Windows 7, and I haven't heard anything bad from any of them either, outside of one friend who has had problems with the 64 bit version, but I doubt that is what you will need or want.

    Taking back the whole motherboard, to me, doesn't sound easier than just returning a problematic sound card. If you don't have a sound card already an integrated one would be overall cheaper..

  • For those out there who may have an older house (like our previous one), a surge protector will do ZERO good if the wiring in the home isn't properly grounded. All a surge protector is designed to do is take the surge of electricity coming through the lines and shunt it into the ground via the house wiring. If your house isn't grounded, the surge has no where to go but into your appliances and electronics.

    You can buy a cheap ground tester at most hardware stores for about five bucks and check the outlets you have your surge protector plugged into. If they aren't grounded outlets, you can either ground them yourself (there are site on the web that show how to do it fairly easily) or you can hire an electrician to come out and do it.
  • Also, Windows Vista was so-so, but Windows 7 works just fine.
  • I have a Windows 7 computer, and while I'm not 100% enamored of the operating system, it's been very stable and I've had no issues.

    Regarding Dell vs. Gateway...eh. I think Dell's quality has dropped significantly over the years, and IMO Gateway never had much quality to begin with.

    Are you looking laptop or desktop?
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