Effects of lightning on modems

[HAL9000]

It's been a rather interesting few days for my employer who runs his second store in a small town. Over the weekend, there was a short lived storm that produced a lot of lightning. Anytime I've seen modem or computer damage to a computer caused by lightning, the parts have been totally fried and destroyed. He's had his 6th call in two days now with modems that;

1) Dial funny: make strange noises, tones lasting considerably longer on some digits than others.
2) Take unusually long times to negotiate
3) Drop connections
4) Connect, but then refuse to do anything
5) Software shows the modem has disconnected, but it hasn't actually released the line. Unplugging the phone line and plugging it back in releases the line.

Has anyone ever had experiences like this from lightning?

We don't feel that it's a driver issue as replacing the faulty modems with the same brand as the one removed, and everything works fine. So far it's been with USR, Supra, and Smartlink modems. Trying these modems in different machines produces the same strange results whether it be with the original driver disk, or the updated ones downloaded from the manufacturer.

[K A Hall]

In answer to your question: Yes to all of the above.
If you are in the computer service call biz, and need a little income boost there is nothing like a good thunderstorm to get you back on your feet.

[Tuf]

You bet, like K A Hall I live in area that has many thunderstorms (Oklahoma). Lightning can introduce tremendous voltages into circuits damaging components. If the duration of the spike is short it may not "fry" the component to where you can visually see it. Sometimes you see damage like you described when the people are using cheap or worn out surge protectors.

A good quality Unintrerupitable Power Supply will eat up most of these spikes. If you live in an area that incurs a lot of lightning be sure to replace the batteries every two or three years.

[HAL9000]

OK, this believe it or not is the first time that I have ever seen modems go screwy from lightning and I've been in the biz for 7 years now. All the ones that I have seen have been totally killed whether visibly or not.

[homer15]

maybe the lines got a mild surge and that's why they're not completely fried. either way, i would check the mobo's too to make sure they aren't damaged (but i know i don't have to tell that to the great hal... hehe)

[sedu]

My father's Dell took a strike to the modem a couple of weeks ago and it destroyed practically everything in the box-modem, sound card, video card, motherboard, ram and processor. It was a $1200 box shot to hell. Built him a better one for around $800 salvaging only the cd-rom, since Dell floppies won't work in Antec boxes (eject rod is too short to reach the recessed bar on the floppy). Big damage in a hurry.

[Hot Rod]

Yes....I've seen varying degrees of problems with modems after storms. Everything from just acting a little flaky to being completely dead.

[SARGE]

Being a telco guy I see alot of bad modems after storms. Folks call because line is dead. Modem has a short and ties up line. I had a customer who had a title company. This particular office was the "home office" and had modems out the yazoo connecting to the branch offices. When I got there he had a pile of modems in the middle of the floor. Building took a direct strike and cooked 'em all.

[HAL9000]

Thanks Sarge, I was kinda waiting for your answer cuz I know you're in telco. Like I said, the only thing I have ever seen is totally dead modems, never flakey after a storm. I guess that answers my question. Thanks guys.

[Sus~]

* chuckling & shaking my head* Auto painters wait for hail storms and "Teckies" wait for thunderstorms.
( love your tag)

[ktkendall]

We also had some nice thunderstorms here on the 4th, and I've just finished up fixxing a school districts PBX that took a hit thru their T1 line. Ended up needing 6 circut boards to get them fully functional! I agree the the ones you describe didn't take major direct hit but just enough to do mild damage!!

[Floppyman]

5) Software shows the modem has disconnected, but it hasn't actually released the line. Unplugging the phone line and plugging it back in releases the line.

Had this happen with a ISA USR 56k winmodem, after it was damaged by lightning. After you disconnect and want to reconnect again you just unplug the line and plug it in again and it works again.

[strickeasy]

Had this happen with a ISA USR 56k winmodem, after it was damaged by lightning. After you disconnect and want to reconnect again you just unplug the line and plug it in again and it works again. i thought,that only happened to me.i have the same modem,a thunderstorm came, then it only worked when you unpluged the phone line and pluged it in again. but as of yesterday it don't work at all.