Thinkpads Forum

Is it okay to leave computer on or connected even during a T storm?

Uh, disconnect....unless on battery power.

You should stop using electrical equipment of any kind during a severe thunderstorm, especially if the thunder sounds as if it is getting closer to you.

Disconnect the system, as even a system that is off can be affected by a particularly powerful line surge. A UPS and a good surge protector would also help if disconnecting isn't an option.

Stay on wireless connection, don't use a wired connection.

Funny story, was at a customers house working on their network and I was telling him about the better surge protectors that have the ethernet and phone line protection. He told me that about a year ago thier house got hit by lightning it took out the well pump, heat pump, water heaters, and a lot of other devices. He had insurance.

great. I thought that nobody was replying to my posts nowadays so I never came to this forum recently.

4 replies!

ok. I thought that it was ok to have your thinkpad plugged. I guess not.

I remember about a year back, lightning struck a house in my neighborhood. The current caused a fire in the house it struck, blew out the projection-screen TV in the house next to it and made it's way down the line to my house where it went through all the lights that were off (the lights flashed for half a second but none burnt out) and killed my DSS reciever.

Ok, seeing as we're talking about lightening. Years ago, in a former life, I was an property adjuster for a large insurance company in another country. I had a customer/insured whose house was hit by lightening. When I went to assess the damage, it was clear the lightening strike obliterated her chimney. It was pretty spectacular. Then she took me inside and pointed to all the electrics that were fried (can't remember details, but TV and stereo for sure). Then she tried to tell me that the lightening caused the paint to peel in her bathroom.

Huh?

When I looked it, it was obvious the paint had been peeling for quite some time, so I said I would not cover it. She put up a fuss over the next few weeks as I arranged to get everything fixed/replaced, but eventually she caved.

Anyway, so I naturally had her chimney rebuilt. She called me just as the workmen were finishing. "You better come look," she said. I show up at her house and saw, rather quickly, that the colour of the brick they used didn't quite match the rest of the house. The actual brick that her house was built with was 'discontinued' and they got the closest they could. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was noticeable if you looked close enough, even from the ground. (Why the contractator didn't call me, I'll never know, but that's a different story.)

Anyway, she wasn't happy, and rightfully so I thought. She demanded to know what I was going to do about it. "How about I get your bathroom painted," I asked "to make up for it?"

She agreed, and the file was closed the next week!

Here is my anecdote:

I was on a boat that had a small round TV antenna on the mast. Lightening hit the TV antenna and it blew apart. My 600E was connected via a dongle then a RCA cable from the TV out port to the VCR that was connected to the TV antenna. The strike fried the electronics on the TV out card, but otherwise did not hurt the ThinkPad. The TV and VCR were undamaged. I bought a new TV out card for the 600E and installed it. We also bought and installed a new TV antenna for the boat. All was well again.

18 months ago a mains transformer ~ 500 mtrs away from my house was hit by lightning.

First thing what happend that I woke up by this loud bang and the smell of smoke.

I had a surge protector between mains and Nokia ADSL (MW1122) and the laptop. (Fortunately the modem on the computer was not plugged in.)

The surge protector blew apart. Everything else is still working to-date, inclusive the Nokia ADSL.

Neighbour on one side lost TV, video, stereo and some other appliances. Neighbour 150 mtrs down the road on other side had the phone socket blown off the wall and an electric jug blown apart.

First thing I did after the shops opened up is getting another surge protector.

Marinus

There is almost no system on the face of this earth that is immune from a direct, or even, near direct strike or surge.

I understand that some UPS manufacturers WARANTEE their systems against strikes, but this is hardly a guarantee that you won't get one--and lose data on the hard drive.


All you need to do is see the almost results of an almost strike to be a believer---I formerly serviced HVAC equipment, som woman customer suffered a direct strike to one corner of the house. I arrived in the fall when she discovered her furnace would not work, after she had settled with insurance on other damage, including a "free hanging" wrought iron hand rail for her porch. The strike had fried nearly every component in her old, non-electronic furnace, including the main blower motor, the gas valve operator, and welded all the switches across in the hi limit and blower switch. A real mess.

We have lost, during the last 3 summers, three ISDN switchboxes, one multifunctional HP laserjet 3100 (fax/printer/scanner), one Canon MP 730 mulifunctional that replaced the HP, and, yes, one ThinkPad 22m to nearby lightning strikes. I've seen the ISDN switchbox literally blowing apart in a fireball, its cover flying through the room. Everybody living in the area (hills, granite bedrock rich in iron ore) has suffered melted phones, faxes, ovens and other equipment. The T22m went dead after a strike about 500 metres away, even though it was behind a cascade of surge protectors (we got main surge protection for the whole house, including the ISDN phone line, after the first incidents while the house was still under construction) and use UPSes and surge protector blocks for any electronic equipment.
Disconnecting is the only way to ensure your TP does not get damaged. And even then a direct hit on the huse may cause such a powerful electromagnetic pulse that it could still be fried.
Getting main surge protection for the house does help to avoid getting all your household electrical equipment blown up.