Thunderstorm last week

[Doug Winterburn]

Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 20:32:02 -0700
From: Art Wagner <awagner@qwest.net>
I put in a "whole house surge protector" in the entrance panel.  They
are supposed to have a much higher rating in joules than the plug in
type and be able to survive multiple surges if within the rating.  They
are also supposed to be more effective being closer to the real ground. 
They run in the $25-$30 range at HD.

-Doug

"Robert N. Eaton" wrote:
> 
> Just got back on line this afternoon after a hectic week.  During the
> thunderstorm Sunday before last my townhouse suffered a near strike (no
> perceptible interval between the flash and the CRACK-BOOM).  Even though
> I had good (?)($36.95) surge protectors on both my home audio system and
> my computer, the stereo amp lit up like a Christmas tree and stopped
> working.  The computer was more subtle.  It just got flakey, froze up
> and wouldn't recognize any key-strokes.  I used the BBS (Big Black
> Switch) to turn it off.  When I tried to reboot the POST ran, but the
> BIOS didn't recognize either of its hard-drives. Even with floppy rescue
> disks I couldn't access the hard-drives.
> 
> Brought it back to P.C. Club (the makers/assemblers) and was told that
> the BIOS had probably become corrupted, due, no doubt, to the extra
> Joules whizzing about during the thunderstorm. They kept it over this
> last week-end and called me this forenoon that they had flashed the BIOS
> and it seemed to be booting correctly. They charged me only $25.00 (Hey!
> It could have been worse.) I brought it home, re-connected everything,
> turned it on, and it booted as if nothing had ever happened.
> 
> Life again is good.
> 
> Bob Eaton
> 
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