Thunderstorm last week

[Robert N. Eaton]

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