Hi.  I got home from work last night after a big storm, and I had two circuit breakers tripped in my house.  My phone service got zapped, my cable modem is dead, and my precious SN95G5 will not start at all.  I opened it up and did not detect any burnt smell, but I did not have time to take it the whole thing apart.  I searched the forum and see the suggestion to remove all the components except the video card and RAM, and to clear the CMOS, and then try booting, which I will attempt tonight.

I was wondering if there were any next steps?  Is there a good way to a) determine if the power system is fried, and b) where do I find a replacement PSU?  I assume I can look for blown looking capacitors on my motherboard to see if that is fried.  If anyone has some suggestions, I’d appreciate it.  Thanks!

And no, I didn’t have a UPS, and yes, I’m am certainly looking into getting one now, and yes, I feel dumb…

i’d personally have thought a surge protector would be more use than a UPS in this situation? (please feel free to correct as i’d like to invest in this type of thing, damned sothern wiring)

Might be a dumb question: Are your components connected to a power strip that has a fail-safe trip/button in case of lightning surges? If so, it might have tripped and all you need to do is reset/press the switch on the strip.

Cheers!

Hi.  Yes, PC was connected to strip, but I’ve re-set strip and other things work but PC does not.  I’ve tested power cord and that works.  And I guess I had thought UPS also had surge protector.  According to my Electrical Contractor neighbor, the only really useful; surge protectors are connected directly to the curcuit breakers, but did he ever hook me up?  Nooooo......

my suggestion is to read your home contents insurance policy.

I had that happen once.  However for me that stuff that was connected to the power bar was ok, but my DSL modem which was connected to the a wall plug (due to lack of room on power bar) was not.  Fortunately the ISP gave me a replacement free of charge.

It could be that only your power supply was damaged (if that’s the case you can find a replacement online, it will probably be around $70-100 for a shuttle PSU).  Are you able to test your other components (such as RAM, video card, CPU) in another system, that should narrow things down.  Maybe you can also test the mobo with a different power supply?

Izumino - 14 September 2006 10:28 AM

And no, I didn’t have a UPS, and yes, I’m am certainly looking into getting one now, and yes, I feel dumb…

Check this thread on UPS
http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/forums/viewthread/93728/
On their UPS, APC offers up to $100,000 worth of equipment replacement.  They will replace any equipment properly hooked up to a properly installed APC UPS up to $100,000.

hugh - 14 September 2006 10:31 AM

i’d personally have thought a surge protector would be more use than a UPS in this situation? (please feel free to correct as i’d like to invest in this type of thing, damned sothern wiring)

Here is a tutorial on surge protectors
http://www.howstuffworks.com/surge-protector.htm
If you read it you will see that a good UPS provides the highest level of protection.  A good UPS converts the commercial 120 VAC to DC.  It then uses the DC to charge the battery, and by the way, batteries make great power filters.  An inverter is then used to convert the DC back to 120 VAC for the computer to use.  When the commercial 120 VAC is down, the 12 VDC from the battery runs the inverter and powers the attached equipment.  This process just happens to also provide surge protection to a very high and reliable level, and with a quality inverter also provides line conditioning.  Good line conditioning is very important for helping any electonic equipment achieve it’s full expected life span.  Don’t forget, as the article says, running a drill, or vacuum cleaner, a mixer, or even the refridgerator kicking in can put a lot of crap on the 120 VAC in your house.  That can eventually shorten the life span of sensitive electronic equipment.  That’s why I have my stereo equipment hooked up to it’s own UPS, as well as my expensive LCD Projection TV, DVD, VCR, etc. on their own UPS.

One thing the article suggests that I didn"t think of is hooking the UPS up to a surge protector. 

Pudge

Hi.  Just an update for anyone in the same situation:  I finally found a moment to look over my PC, and while there seems to be no obvious damage--no blown capacitors, scorched motherboard, etc., it does not work.  I removed all the components, took out the CMOS chip and put it back in, but that made no difference.  I took out the Shuttle power supply and tried connecting a different, non-Shuttle pwer supply with the same specs, but still nothing would start.  Therefore, unless anyone knows any other ways to test, it would appear that I am f-ed.  I contacted State Farm and, lo and behold, I am covered for $5K in computer damages from a lightning strike, so it looks as though I will be able to regroup.  It seems as though the chain just got fried-- my cable modem, my router, and the PC.  So I have a few small questions:

1) Are there any other tests or re-sets I can do on my existing system?
2) Am I to assume that if my mo-bo is dead, that this also has fried my AMD Barton chip, my RAM, my DVD burner, my SATA hard drive, etc.?
3) Since I don’t believe the SN95 is a “current” shuttle model any longer, is there a similar 64-bit model I should look as as a replacement?
And yes, I’ll be getting a professional level surge supressor…

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I use panamax. You can get one that includes phone line protection as well as power. Not cheap, but I’ve never had anything fry. Except eggs and what not…

Side Note: Usually a UPS will have surge protection. And normally you cannot plug one into another and have it function correctly.