Hello, This is my first post on this fabulous website, and i've come to you for advice on what to do. Obviously, my computer wasn't hit by lightning but it did get the next "best" thing. During a thunderstorm 2 days ago, a bolt of lightning hit what must have been right in front of my appartment and at that same point my power bar sizzled, grizzled, sparkled blue and then my computer tower stopped. However, everything else on the power bar (modem, router, laptop, monitor, even the power bar itself) was absolutely fine. Incredible! My computer would not start at all that same evening, so I finally went to bed thinking I'd just wasted a fortune on this thing. I wake up the next morning, and it worked! Fabulous, I was over the moon. However, it seems my computer has been traumatized and has scars, and of these I wanted to talk about. Here are the symptoms! -The first 2 days that I turned on the computer it would run for a few seconds then turn itself off. After turning it on again it would run for 10 seconds then turn off. The third time it stayed on. Today it booted first time without shutting down. (damaged PSU perhaps?). -My motherboard and CPU both run 4-5 degrees hotter than before. They used to be at 37-38 celcius at rest and now they are at 43-44. Yesterday they were running at 40-42 so they seem to be getting hotter every day. Turning up the fans of the case to maximum seems to have no effect at all. (could the electric shock it suffered have burnt away some thermal paste making the cpu run hotter?) -Everything is working fine in the computer (fans, etc). -I can do the same things as before (play games, listen to music, etc.) and it works ok, same performance except under load in some games (*cough* Dalaran in WoW *cough*) where I get a slightly lower fps rate. -While trying to get my pc to turn on again after the event, I pressed the manual reset button on my mobo to see if it would work. The first time my comp worked the following day, some things in the BIOS seemed to have changed (could it be the reset that has changed some settings that make the comp run at higher temps?). -After the lightning struck, I detected an electronic burn smell for about 2-3 seconds, then nothing. It was impossible to detect where it came from (I went around sniffing). I would have thought it would be the power bar but it still works fine and tells me it is grounded and protected (LEDs). That's all I can think of. I'm afraid of those rising mobo and cpu temps, and perhaps the PSU not starting at first, apart from that everything looks fine. Here is my system if it can help: Mobo : Asus P6T Deluxe v2 CPU : Intel Core i7 920 @2.66 with stock cooler. Case : Antec 1200 GPU : EVGA GTX 295 HDDs : WD Velociraptor 300Gb and Samsung F1 1Tb RAM : Corsair XMS3 9-9-9-25 3x2Gb I handpicked the parts but didn't build the system nor configure the bios myself. Sorry if it seems longwinded, I would appreciate your imput. Thank you
i Have af eeling the Mobo got the brunt of the damage. Could be the capacitors are not handling charge as effeciently. Try toroubleshooting by swapping parts with a friend's pc to determine, what is working at it's previous efficiency to it's current. That's tha best advice i can give i think. Troubleoshoot b4 u replace
I know what thunder storm you are talking about. It was pretty wild that night ... It's been pretty wild the whole summer actually there are a few tests to do before you can pinpoint what the problem is exactly. However, the first thing you should try is another power supply on another power bar. if the computer still crashes, keep the other PSU and tests the other parts. Start with the memory (memtest), if it clears multiple passes on a decently long period (12hours) then test something else. I would check the CPU next. You can use whatever you want to test the stability of the cpu but people here prefer folding@home to burn their cpu and see if it,s stable or not. If you don't want to install it, just use whatever else the next guy replying this thread will say because I forgot the names of all the apps I use for this haha .. sorry ! anyway start with these tests and give us news. We'll see what we can do then
good PSU's has a internal fuse. Maybe it blew up. See if you change it. WARNING: Your PSU has capacitor and CAN discharge on you. Only proceed if you know what you are doing. If you can RMA it, do so.. just don't say the part about the thunderstorm Next time, make sure your surge protected power bar is able to handle and protect such power. I know many people confuses them with standard power adapters, which are just a splitter. In this case your computer probably took the hit and saved your other devices. Also, bring a plug tester (cost about 15-30$ at the hardware store) and ensure that your electric box OR plug is grounded. In Canada, it is to code that "new" (like 20+ years ago) constructions have each wall plug grounded. To prevent massive wall destruction in older house/buildings to add the ground, a work around was set where the electronic box is grounded. It's not as safe, but it's at least something. A plug tester will detected that from your wall plug.
If the internal fuse had gone it would not even turn on and I would not recommend opening it because it will invalidate your warranty anyway! I would say that it is a voltage supply issue you are seeing, first of all I would swap the PSU out and if its the same then it could be the voltage regulator circuits on the motherboard or even the CPU. Like people have said, try memtest and download a program called "IntelBurnTest" its one of the most stressful programs you can run to put a CPU through its paces, I have a lot of overclocked CPUs that I fold on (folding@home) and if it doesn't pass at least 2 hours on IntelBurnTest its not good enough. If it passes memtest and IntelBurnTest and its still mis-behaving then I would RMA the motherboard first of all and go from there....
Thanks for the responses guys. Everything is under warranty so there's no problem there, the only thing is that i've moved about an hour away from where I was and I have no car to bring my computer to the store with (tower weighs 45 lbs lol) so that's why i've been trying to solve the problem "myself" first and if possible see if one part in particular was the source. Today the computer started first time no problem, unlike the 2 previous days. It's healing!! lol, well apart from rising temps, but to be fair, it is also 3-4 degrees higher inside the house too these past few days with increasing heat. My PSU is a Corsair TX 1000W, I don't know anyone who has remotely anything similar so swapping is going to be difficult. So.. I'll try memtest, IntelBurnTest, and check my plugs. I downloaded Prime95 the other day in the intention of using it soon, is that good for what you suggest also? I planned on buying a TRUE 120 and OCing my CPU soon so that will probably bring down temps a fair bit.
Prime95 is ok for older duals & quads but it doesn't really push an i7 hard enough imo, get this running mate- http://downloads.guru3d.com/IntelBurnTest-v2.0-download-2047.html I would re-seat everything as well, unplug the lot and check for any burn marks on PCIe pins and slots and power connectors etc etc
Not really helping, but I also had the exact same lightning attack a few years ago on my box. had to replace the motherboard, no choice really it just wasnt the same.
Erm. Did the person who built it overclock and set up the fans to run at high speed in the bios. If it was restarted a few times, some motherboards will reset the bios. so any overclock and any manual fan speed would be lost. just a thought
Got two comments: One, the i7 is very sensitive when it comes to voltages, so you may wanna check the CPU somehow, err..... Two, with all that expensive gaming kit you couldn't invest in a surge proof power lead? Lol... I hope you've learnt your lesson
I'd say the PSU is the culprit for the booting problems. The higher temps are caused by either the higher ambient temp, or by the CMOS reset (voltages on AUTO). Also, I recommend LinX over Intel Burn Test. It uses the same stress tool (Linpack) but is a GUI and not a CLI. Download: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=201670
