Laptop got fried during lightning storm

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pmperry · #1 Post by **pmperry** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:51 pm

Hi everyone: Friend of mine traveling in Italy left her laptop on during a thunderstorm. When she got back to the house the laptop was dark. She unplugged it and plugged it back in, but no lights come on at all (none of the LEDs). I had her take out the batteery and put it back; and also hold down the ON key for a while. But no lights, no action whatsoever.

Anything else you can think of?

I am thinking she could get a shop to at least try to retrieve any data on her hard drive that she may need. Otherwise, it seems to me that there's not much she can do.

(She is not using a Thinkpad -- it's a Toshiba Satellite -- so I put this in the off topic forum!!)

P.S. By the way, anyone know of a good tech shop in the Genoa -- Aosta Valley area, where my friend travels a lot? Thanks.

#2 Post by **carbon_unit** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 6:20 pm

I would say get a USB enclosure for the hard drive from the fried computer. Then you can easily transfer all of her data to the new computer. After that you can wipe the drive and have a nice USB mini external drive for archiving stuff.

sarbin · #3 Post by **sarbin** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 6:22 pm

and just to add...
sometimes lightning damage to electronics is covered under one's homeowners/renters insurance policy, even while traveling. won't hurt for her to check into it.

BillP · #4 Post by **BillP** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 6:37 pm

Depending on what the computer was connected to (phone line, modem) it may just be a blown power supply. If the power supply is bad, the battery could have been drained after the supply failed. Check the power supply with a voltmeter and go from there.

Website · #5 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:40 pm

BillP wrote:Depending on what the computer was connected to (phone line, modem) it may just be a blown power supply. If the power supply is bad, the battery could have been drained after the supply failed. Check the power supply with a voltmeter and go from there.

I had this happen on a Dell...so definately look into testing another Power Supply...

ajkula66 · #6 Post by **ajkula66** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:00 pm

I had an A31p die like this last year. No fun whatsoever. And I had just sealed a deal for it...

pmperry · #7 Post by **pmperry** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 10:05 pm

Thanks, folks.
I'll pass along all of this information to her.

Laptop got fried during lightning storm

Laptop got fried during lightning storm

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