About two nights ago, there was an intense thunderstorm near my house, which I didn't really pay much attention to, as I was half-asleep at the time. However, there was suddenly a tremendous flash of light and crack of thunder that seemed to come from somewhere right in front of my house, which momentarily shut off all power. The next morning, I found that two breakers had been flipped, and my cable modem was completely inoperative.
Later on in the day, I found that my computer wouldn't turn on, either. First, I tested the PSU (Antec NeoEco 620c) by plugging the 20+4 into an old Dell (Pentium 4) and the latter managed to turn on, though the absence of an AGP-compatible connector has prevented me from fully testing the PSU's functionality. It was connected to a surge protector, along with my monitor, printer, PS3, and speakers; all of these were also intact. After further inspection, I suspect that my motherboard (ASRock z87 Extreme3) has been damaged by a lightning surge. On the surface, it appears to be fine, but some of the screw holes connecting the board to the chassis have faint traces of a hard white, powdery substance. I flipped the board over to check, and it seems as if the back is somewhat sticky compared to the front, with grease-like smears that did not seem to be present before. Otherwise, there seems to be little obvious damage, compounded by the dark colouring of my motherboard's PCB.
At this point in time, I wish to confirm my suspicions, and I want to know whether or not I may be correct. The lightning induced a power surge which traveled from the coaxial cable leading into my modem, which got fried, traveled through the ethernet cable leading my router without frying the latter, but then went from my router to my computer through an ethernet cable, and then fried my motherboard.
Presently, I am uncertain as to the full extent of the damage: the PSU seems to be functional, the RAM (2x4 GB Corsair Vengeance LP), CPU (Intel Core i5-4670k) and the GPU (XFX HD7870 Core Edition) have not been tested but appear intact, and various cooling mechanisms are in working order.
This or whatever else being the case, I would like to have further advice on what I should do.
Later on in the day, I found that my computer wouldn't turn on, either. First, I tested the PSU (Antec NeoEco 620c) by plugging the 20+4 into an old Dell (Pentium 4) and the latter managed to turn on, though the absence of an AGP-compatible connector has prevented me from fully testing the PSU's functionality. It was connected to a surge protector, along with my monitor, printer, PS3, and speakers; all of these were also intact. After further inspection, I suspect that my motherboard (ASRock z87 Extreme3) has been damaged by a lightning surge. On the surface, it appears to be fine, but some of the screw holes connecting the board to the chassis have faint traces of a hard white, powdery substance. I flipped the board over to check, and it seems as if the back is somewhat sticky compared to the front, with grease-like smears that did not seem to be present before. Otherwise, there seems to be little obvious damage, compounded by the dark colouring of my motherboard's PCB.
At this point in time, I wish to confirm my suspicions, and I want to know whether or not I may be correct. The lightning induced a power surge which traveled from the coaxial cable leading into my modem, which got fried, traveled through the ethernet cable leading my router without frying the latter, but then went from my router to my computer through an ethernet cable, and then fried my motherboard.
Presently, I am uncertain as to the full extent of the damage: the PSU seems to be functional, the RAM (2x4 GB Corsair Vengeance LP), CPU (Intel Core i5-4670k) and the GPU (XFX HD7870 Core Edition) have not been tested but appear intact, and various cooling mechanisms are in working order.
This or whatever else being the case, I would like to have further advice on what I should do.
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