lightning strike to a phone line

[degland]

After only 3 weeks my brand new comupter(amd k6-3 400,128ram, voodoo3 3000) encountered a lightning surge through the phone line. The system was off and the power line was protected by a surge protector. The modem and sound card were fried and I have since replaced them with the exact same cards(which appear to work fine). Playing any game that requires the specialties of the voodoo 3 3000 card(EverQuest or Rogue Squadron) my now used and abused computer freezes, requiring the power button to be turned off and back on. I have updated to DirectX6.1 and have installed the latest drivers from 3DFX. I know the voodoo card works properly because I have placed it in another computer and I am able to play without any problems. No conflicts are shown in the device manager and I have ran the thorough scan disk. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[This message has been edited by degland (edited 06-27-99).]

[CMonster]

You can try reloading all the drivers that you can, even reloading Windows, hard drive contents may be corrupted... but depending on how close the lightning strike was the degradation to your system may be terminal. Even a static discharge that you cannot even feel can be fatal to a chip - and you have no way of knowing just what components have been affected.

BTW, I feel for you buddy, I lost a modem due to phone line surge - bad equipment in use on the same line elsewhere in the house.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-27-99).]

[Dominus]

Never lost a modem to a lightning strike, but during a thunderstorm once, the telephone pole got hit with lightning, the power went out, and the phone started playing classical music. Seriously. It stopped working the next day.

[degland]

CMonster,
Thank you but I am a little confused. The lightning downed the phone line 3 house from mine so it was pretty close. I do not understand how I would be able to use this computer for all other things except those that require 3DFX's goodies(glide?). And if you could, would I need to uninstall W98 or just reinstall it? Thanks

[socalgal]

Most (if not all) surge protectors come with warrantees to replace your damaged equipment if theirs fails to do the job - which is to protect your equipment. The dollar amount of replacement can be quite high, depending on the brand/model (and price) of the protector.

Hopefully you filled out the warrantee and mailed it in, (and kept a copy of it and your receipt) thus protecting your rights to make a claim.

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 06-27-99).]

[DavidX]

You say your Voodoo3 works fine in another system, so your card must be okay. And it seems unlikely that the motherboard, even if damaged, would only choose to take exception to Glide and nothing else. Your hard disk sounds basically okay. That leaves software.

I can only suggest that you remove your Voodoo3, totally remove all files related to it, and then re-install it from scratch. If still no good, then yes, re-format the hard drive and re-install the lot.

socalgal
Sounds like his computer was damaged through the phone line, not the power line. Still, if the computer is only 3 weeks old, I might try some sort of claim under the product warranty. Probably no go, but worth a shot.

[socalgal]

DavidX ~ On second reading of degland's post, you are right, it doesn't say the phone line was plugged into a surge protector. My mistake, thanks for pointing it out to me. Well, he might give it a shot anyway, and also through the product warranty like you said.

If his phone line was plugged into the surge protector, then he would have a claim if he followed registration/warrantee instructions.



[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 06-27-99).]

[CMonster]

I always start by double checking all the connections, cables, chips secure in the sockets, cards secure in the slots, etc..especially if any work has been done to the system recently. That said...

You say the system works fine except for 3DFX goodies dependant programs..it may simply be that when you reinstalled the modem and sound cards that Windows reassigned resources that do not allow some components to work together well, for lack of a better way of explaining it.

First, I would make sure that you haven't inadvertantly installed one of the cards in the PCI slot that is right next to the AGP slot (video card slot) - this can cause untold headaches - competition for system resources on super 7 AGP systems - a hidden resource conflict that does not show up in the Device Manager;

Second, I would try removing the modem and sound card from the computer and then testing the 3DFX stuff again - if the problem is gone then you might have a hidden resource or driver conflict..remove ..install..reinstall drivers..repeat.....

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-28-99).]