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General => Off Topic => Topic started by: Numsgil on June 29, 2006, 02:29:51 PM

Title: Computer explosion
Post by: Numsgil on June 29, 2006, 02:29:51 PM
My computer was hit by lightning last night... and won't turn on anymore.  My monitor appears to have exploded as well.  (Gunshot noise, ozone smell).

I was close to releasing the C++ version as an alpha sometime saturday probably, but that's probably going to be postponed indefinately, depending on exactly why my computer won't turn on and what's wrong with it (please just be the power supply fuse!).

Internet at my house also died, along with my TV.  Acts of God destroying everything that brings me joy!
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: Testlund on June 29, 2006, 04:02:47 PM
I'm very sorry to hear that. I don't suppose you made a back-up on CD?

But you might be able to recover it from the harddrive if you connect it to another computer.
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: EricL on June 29, 2006, 04:18:27 PM
Bummner.  Lightning sucks.  I will never look at clouds or lightning the same way again after sailing near the equator.  Really scary stuff, worse then sailign in hurricane zones IMHO - at least you can see a hurricane coming and do somethign about it.  Lightning can sink boats (we know a few) and the EMP can destroy anything electronic even if you don't take a direct hit.   We had three really scary moments last year when I thought we were fried - huge strikes hitting the water within a few hundred feet around us, etc..  I actually have a write up on lightning strike preparedness for sailors on my site...
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: maheshjr2000 on June 30, 2006, 08:49:46 AM
Num you might have to send your harddrive for proffesional recovery. Course I bet you could already tell with the crispy smell lol.
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: shvarz on June 30, 2006, 11:42:03 AM
Holy crap!  (sorry about the blasphemy to all religion-sensitive people).  This is sad indeed and the HD has a pretty high chance of being fried  

That's the first time I hear about lightning just blasting away stuff in people's homes.  Sounds scary...
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: PurpleYouko on June 30, 2006, 12:23:21 PM
A couple of months back I lost my router, modem and three ethernet cards to a lightning strike. Luckily the surge didn't go any further than that and the computers themselves survived.
I have since added surge protection on my cable internet but even so I don't really trust it to stop a direct (or even reasonably close) hit
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: Numsgil on June 30, 2006, 12:49:03 PM
My hard drive seems fine, but it's inaccessible at the moment (it's boot sector was a little weird and it doesn't like to be ported to another motherboard apparently).  The source code is fine.  I might be able to just install Windows 98 on the partition that's still open and run it on my other computer.

My motherboard is fried.  You can see the physical scorch marks.  It won't even turn on.  Other casualties:

Our upstairs Television
Wireless Router
Cable Modem (and it's power supply)
Our Electric Garage Door

Amazingly my monitor seems okay, even though I distinctly heard an explody type noise comming from it.

I guess I was sort of thinking I needed one of those new dual core computers anyway
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: Elite on July 01, 2006, 07:38:25 AM
Well I hope everything turns out alright (or as alright as possible) for you Num. Hope you can retrieve your C++ source code OK too

At least you have an excuse for a shiny new computer  
In fact, that gives me a half-baked idea: Does anybody have access to a supercomputer. I'd love to see a billion-cycle sim, to see what comes out  
Title: Computer explosion
Post by: Greven on July 07, 2006, 02:15:25 PM
Sorry to hear Num.

Remindes me when I lost 2 computers and 2 bicycles in one month a few years back... Both computers crashed (my laptop and the other one stationary) and both cycles stolen...