Lightning strike on motherboard through Ethernet cable

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
R

Ronald Sterijuanna

Distinguished
Jun 2, 2015
55
1
18,535
Few days ago a lightning strike happened directly on top of my roof. My PC was turned off, but my router was on. After the strike I had to replace my router and had to buy a WiFi receiver because my Ethernet port was completely dead due to being connected to router directly. Everything else seemed fine.

Problem is for last few days PC is freezing up randomly. I'm worried that due to the strike my MB is slowly dying, hence the freezing up. It's an asrock dh61 board. How can I diagnose my MB and make sure if I need a new one or not?
Previously similar freezing problem was solved by reconnecting the cable of HDD, but I'm worried this might not help this time.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
J

jay32267

Champion
Mar 16, 2017
10,709
1,330
56,940
Well....I'm not surprised at this. I have lightning strikes and power issues where I work (on electronics) and I deal with this all the time.

My first guess is...you are correct. The lightning got in through the ethernet port and not only screwed that up....but good chance it screwed something else up as well.

As far as what that is...I think the best chance is that it's the MB....as that's where the ethernet port is. Although there is a possibility that it went through the MB and got something else, like an HD or PSU etc.

It might be tough to isolate without doing a bunch of swapping.

That being said, I would probably swap the MB....as the ethernet port is already shot.



 
Upvote 1 Downvote
B

brahmoone

Apr 25, 2018
10
0
10
How do you mean by freezing? Is it just hiccups at times or did you get bluescreen or reboots?

Apart from the motherboard, I think it could still be the hard drive. Better try swapping with another hard drive first if you have some lying around.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
R

Ronald Sterijuanna

Distinguished
Jun 2, 2015
55
1
18,535


By freeizng I mean hiccups that happen randomly
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

brahmoone

Apr 25, 2018
10
0
10


That looks like a dying HDD too, for me. Have you check it's SMART status with CrystalDiskInfo or similar apps?
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
R

Ronald Sterijuanna

Distinguished
Jun 2, 2015
55
1
18,535


Yep. Disk health report is fine. I just replaced the cable and ran a bunch if diagnostic tools after replacing linux with windows. Everything seems fine so far after 1 day of test, let's see how things end up after a few more. Ethernet port is still toast though! Many thanks for your cooperation :).

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

brahmoone

Apr 25, 2018
10
0
10


Oh, bad cable? There could be possibly hint on the SMART status such as CRC error count.

Ethernet port is easy, right? Just get an USB to ethernet adaptor..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
O

OldtimeGamer

Honorable
Feb 3, 2013
168
0
10,680
Same thing happened to me just one week ago. A lightning strike hit very close to my house and best I can say burned out my Arris Surfboard wifi/router. The spike then apparently traveled into the ethernet port and toasted the port on my ASUS Crosshair vi hero.

I originally tried reinstalling the BIOS and then a fresh install of Windows 10 (I was already having issues with my browser freezing up, black screen and stuff) so I figured I may as well just try a fresh install. Unfortunately after buying a new wifi/router the ethernet was still showing the dreaded red X.
I ordered a USB 3.0 to ethernet adapter and I'm back online tonight. I tried to download the drivers LAN but they wouldn't even install. It clearly toasted the port.

I've had the PC running through a decent surge protector but the Comcast Xfinity TV cable itself wasn't run through it. I had asked about this once before when I had an expensive lightning filter on the line when I had cable TV but told that it couldn't be used with certain hookups like Direct TV that I had at that time. They claimed it messes up the signal... I'm now thinking that's bs and could kick myself for not running the cable through a lightning filter with my current Xfinity. Funny thing is it didn't do anything to my Comcast rented box or my television.

I just bought this motherboard 9 months ago. I'm wondering is ASUS would honor their 3 year warranty.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom