Forum Home
Press F1
 
Thread ID: 42717 2004-02-20 06:58:00 OT: Lighting VS PC Shaun Minfie (2961) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
216818 2004-02-20 06:58:00 Further to the hijacked thread Here (pressf1.pcworld.co.nz)

I visted my friend at the PC Shop. The tally for the day in the Wairarapa at one shop was:

7 Modems fried
2 PC's toast

He showed me a hard drive from one of the fried machines and one of the large chips on the circuit board was melted in half!

And that my friends it why I unplug my PC during lightning storms :)

On a side note. Power Co registered 93 lightning strikes on there lines in Taranaki alone last night.

Shaun
Shaun Minfie (2961)
216819 2004-02-20 07:42:00 And further to my response in that thread, any device attached to more than one wired network is at risk from electrical storms and/or accidents-incidents where there is EPR (Earth Potential Rise).

Therefore PCs, Cordless Phone base units are 2 main victims.
godfather (25)
216820 2004-02-20 07:50:00 So you could in fact fry the cordless phone handpiece even though its not attached to the charger ?:| PoWa (203)
216821 2004-02-20 10:28:00 Diagnosed 6 cooked modems over the phone at work today...

Ah the joys of support...

M: "Unfortunately it seems your modem has stopped functioning, did you have an electrical storm last night"
U: "yes, but I have a surge protector and the PC was turned off"
M: "does your phone line pass through it?"
U: "umm no"
whiskeytangofoxtrot (438)
216822 2004-02-20 11:21:00 > So you could in fact fry the cordless phone handpiece
> even though its not attached to the charger

What?

Where did you get that gem from?

My post referred to cordless phone base units. No reference to the handset. Of course it wouldn't work well without a base unit...
godfather (25)
216823 2004-02-20 23:47:00 > Where did you get that gem from?
> My post referred to cordless phone base units. No reference to the handset. Of course it wouldn't work well without a base unit...

lmao. B-) ok ok.
PoWa (203)
216824 2004-02-22 00:40:00 I have seen a phone blown through a wall from a lightning strike. Had a customer ring up for us to repair her phone when I was working in Tokora, went around to pick it up and she showed me the hole in the wall (gibboard) and then produced a melted base unit and one very scorched and sad looking handpiece. We finally managedto get the peices apart back at the shop and everything inside was extremely melted to say the least. dipstick01 (445)
216825 2004-02-22 00:50:00 I too have replace a friends modem yesterday........

the modem looked ok and responded to commands but dident "see" a phone line/dial tone.

$50 and he is back in the game.

I have told him to get a surge protactor for the phone line due to the fact that this is the third modem in two years for him, they get lighting often at there house.
robsonde (120)
216826 2004-02-22 00:53:00 The old phone "lightning arrestors" were a couple of carbon blocks with a thin piece of mica with a hole in it between them. There was one of these between each line and an earth peg. I imagine that it was to spark over if the static charge which can build up on the overhead lines in dry wind got too high, or a mains wire dropped onto the telephone wire. The fuses which were in the same box probably gave a little bit of protection.

More modern equipment uses a gas discharge tube, most of which are only between the lines --- with no earth. These two terminal ones would give no protection against a common mode lightning strike.

If you get a lightning strike onto your power or overhead telephone lines there will be "damage" caused. Equipment plugged in with the wall switch "off" would not be exempt.

There's a lot of energy there.
Graham L (2)
1