I am interested in your opinions about having computers plugged in or even on during a thunderstorm. I'd like to hear your computer-gone-poof stories, too. Also, do you think it's safe in my case to leave the stuff plugged in when it's thundering? Here goes mine: I always unplug my computers and modems during thunder, even though I've got a surge protector. Once, a couple of years ago, my computer really got destroyed by thunder. The only things that were spared were the opticals and the CPU, everything else got replaced. Luckily it still had warranty on it
I have never had a "computer-gone-poof" experience resulting from a thunderstorm, all my equipment is connected through a Belkin Surgemaster protector which comes with a "Lifetime £175,000 Connected Equipment warranty" which implies they are very confident in the protection offered by their products. There's some spiel about it on their website: http://www.belkin.com/uk/powersolutions/
Happened to a cousin of mine once. Strike was to the telephone wire. Destroyed their cordless phone base station, his modem, and the laptop connected to the modem. Laptop replaced under household insurance policy. I guess in the British Isles, strikes to overhead phone cables are the primary means of electrical discharge damage to computers and the like. So if you want to be super-safe, use some sort of surge protection. Or of course wireless - your router will take the hit, but it will stop there.
don't have LAN surge protection. come to think about it, it makes a lot sense, but won't the surge just kill the motherboard? i have 1 value power surge protector 4-socket pad, which i doubt it's going to work, i also have 1 computer socket surge protector. i hope 2 will be enough. although if those 2 fails, only the powersupply should fry. a surge on power is rare right? phone lines are most likely?
Believe so The belkin surge protectors (have one) do your phone line as well. So, although my pc isnt actually surge protected, my network is
They are both possibilities in the UK. I know my office copier was knocked out by a mains power surge on one occasion - know it was a mains-borne event because all the lights flickered at the same time. I guess the US guys have more experience of this - a lot of them see a whole lot more lightning than we do in the UK
Anyone got any idea if a phone line surge protector affects your line stats - important for maximum ADSL speeds.
Only thunder damage i have suffered was an old internal Dial up modem. The modem Chip exploded but saved the rest of the computer! it is always funny when the phone rings with every flash of lightening.
Well, since the lightning bolt passes 100rds of meters through plain air to get to the ground, why wouldn't it make the 1m from the outlet to your system... And it'll get into the ground as fast as it can anyway... So I leave them plugged in (don't even turn them off)
I've got a surge protector but tbh i'm not that worried, in the hugely unlikely event that anything gets fried.. thats what insurance is for.
Can't see the lightning jumping from the outlet to a device which is now disconnected not only from the mains wiring, but more importantly, from an earthing point. The lightning will take the shortest / lowest resistance route to earth.
It will jump around to find that route... And through a metal box is less resistance then through the air... Unplugging is useless unless you physically move the PC to a place that isn't near the outlet. Even unplugging and leaving the lead close is similar to just leaving it plugged in.
My computer turned itself off during a thunder and lightning storm, I've never had one do it before or since and it scared the crap out of me so now I always turn it off until the thunder and lightning stops :X
Leave all mine plugged in. My main rig and servers etc are in a surge, and some stuff is connected upto a UPS
I don't bother with a surge (I would, but they're fairly pricey, maybe next time I buy an extension set). As for power interruptions caused by lightning, I have a clever PSU, and I trust it to keep things working properly, especially seenas it works from 115-250V.
I unplug them. I had a non thunderstorm related power failure last week, I managed to turn the power switch for my better PC (in my signature) off before the power system tried to re-enable power after 3 - 5 seconds but did not get to my old P3 file server in time (had my hand at the back trying to find the switch) and unfortunately when the power came back on for half a second before going off completely for the next hour it killed the VGA card (Nvidia TNT2 M64 pro 64MB) and I don't have insurance (can't afford it). I should fill out a claim form with the power supply company but I would have to get a report saying what is wrong and how much it would cost to fix or replace it. Luckily a mate of mine had an ATI 9600XT 256MB to sell which got it back up and running, it won't work with the latest drivers though (un-installed the Nvidia drivers), had to use the previous version to get it to work.
All of you that have your computers on a surge protector and unplug them during a storm: What about your appliances and heating/cooling systems? These together are probably worth at least as much as a PC, and arguably more of a hassle if your fridge or freezer dies. I have my AV and hifi setups on power conditioners that happen to have integrated surge protectors, and while I believe most power supplies are robust enough to deal with minor power fluctuations (and fail to see how a £5 surge protector can deal with the millions of volts of a direct lightning strike) I would probably use one anyway simply due to the monetary value. I never did use a surge protector on my main PC when I had a desktop, didn't see the point really, especially considering I can't even remember the last time I saw lightning in the UK. When my parents lived in Florida (ie, lots of thunderstorms) they lost quite a bit of computer hardware due to power issues despite the PC being on a surge protector - fat lot of good that did.