Comptuer might have been damaged by lightning

[eyeheartgreen]

Had a pretty bad storm last night and i think my computer might have been damaged. i was gaming when the lightning struck and the power went off then came right back on and i could smell something fried. i left the computer off and unplugged from everythign till this morning when the storms had passed. it booted right up this morning without any problems but im just curious is their anyway i can test it my self or should i take the comp in to a comp store or something to have the hardware tested.

cpu setup:
e8400 (not overclocked)
ep45-ud3p
4 gigs corsair ddr2-800
wd black 640gb
sapphire 4670 1gb of ram
liteon dvdrw
antec basiq 500w

just wondering what parts are most likely to be damaged and how to test them my self if possible or where would be the best place to take the comp to be tested in the dallas, texas area. thanks for any and all help

[Khalil]

The motherboard and Power Supply, try plugging in the computer to a different wall socket. Do you have a dial up modem in the machine?

[shadowpr]

I would open it up, and see if I can see any damage. Also, start sniffing parts to see where that burning smell came from.

First things to check would be power supply, and then motherboard.

[eyeheartgreen]

their is no dial-up i use a cable modem and i also have a surge protector that is no longer protecting after the lightning strike (guessing it did its job) i havent had a chance to pull the parts out of the machine but i did take a good look at everything with my flashlgiht and only thing ive noticed is the lights on the mobo arent on but im not sure fi their supposed to be on so ill look into that somemore. could the smell have come from the surge protector being blown out??

[Khalil]

Do you have access to another power supply? You don't need to worry about hooking up the Video card if it is a low end power supply, its just to test the motherboard.

[glc]

Guys, you are missing something -

it booted right up this morning without any problems

It works - he wants to know what he needs to do to make sure something isn't damaged that matters.

[flanzig1]

The burn smell is probably from the surge protector. Could take it apart and look for burn marks.
A computer has 2 routes that a lighting surge can follow: first is the power line and the second is an internet connection. With dial-up, the phone modem would get fried. With DSL and cable, their modems could get fried.

[Petef56]

Originally Posted by eyeheartgreen their is no dial-up i use a cable modem and i also have a surge protector that is no longer protecting after the lightning strike (guessing it did its job)....

Bingo! That's the clue I was looking for!
What most likely happened is the electronic component (MOV)
in your surge protector did it's job by taking the hit of excess
voltage. That's what you smelled burning and that's why your
surge protector is now indicating it's no longer protecting you.
The MOV blew out and is no longer protecting you.
Your PC is most likely fine, but you need to
replace the surge protector.

My advise is to take this as a lesson and learn that surge
supressors offer very limited protection. Instead of buying a
surge protector outlet strip, buy yourself a UPS which typicaly
has much more robust surge protection circuitry that will
withstand more than one hard surge, as you had experienced.

Check the UPS units at the link below. For a single PC workstation,
a UPS in the $60 to $125 range shold be sufficient. APC is the brand
I recommend.
http://www.staples.com/office/suppli...1&fromUrl=home

---pete---