Surge through cable line

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RWalker2

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 5, 2002
Messages
343
Hey guys, quick question about a surge through a cable line. I was sitting here after the worst of a big thunderstorm had passed (~10 mins after the last thunder was heard) so my computer was still off and I was just watching TV. Well there was a huge flash and bang it seemed VERY close to my house. There was no fluctuation or any problems with the power. However, the cable box on one TV was fried and my TV (connected directly to the cable line) has a messed up picture. Damage not too bad I thought (we have had 2 surges in the past couple years and have dealt with fridges/tvs/water pumps/you name it blow).

Well the cable modem was fine and I powered on my computer and it seems that the surge went through my cable modem, through the router, and then to my network jack on my mobo and fried it. Also took out two ports on the router.

Now, I put in a spare ethernet card and I'm having no problems. I disabled/enabled the port on the mobo and in windows and reset the cmos and the port is still dead.

My question is: should I be worried that my motherboard is damaged in other ways I can't tell yet? It seems fine (I'm on it right now), but I don't want the motherboard to short or anything and then fry my hard drive.

Thanks,
Rob
 
The same thing just happened to my brother about a month ago. The surge came in through the ethernet cable and fried the port.

The board acts stable. It runs memtest for hours without trouble, but after a few hours of normal use it starts crashing randomly. I ended up scrapping the motheroard and putting a new system together for him. It was an old P4 machine, so no big loss.

You'll just have to use it and see if it starts acting up on you.
 
holy shit that's really mess up...i thought i was safe from surges with 2 PCs and 1 router on 2 separate UPSs but this scares me. hopefully it'd fry and stop at the signal booster...
 
You should have a surge protector on the cable and/or ethernet. Some of them interfere with cable or ethernet, so do your homework before buying. If you have DSL, you should have the same on the telephone line - APC makes a good, failsafe phone line surge protector - inline model for about $35 MSLP. I don't have a specific recommendation for cable or ethernet, but APC likely is one of the better brands for this sort of thing.
 
APC has several surge protectors with coax protection, as well as UPS units. Invest in one of those, since you seem to live in an area where T-Storms are common.

I'm glad we don't get T-storms in socal... just EQs, lol. :eek:
 
RWalker2 said:
My question is: should I be worried that my motherboard is damaged in other ways I can't tell yet? It seems fine (I'm on it right now), but I don't want the motherboard to short or anything and then fry my hard drive.

Thanks,
Rob
Click to expand...

No, worry if something doesnt work.
Unless you want complete peace of mind, in which case replace the motherboard.
 
If the mobo is still under warranty, I'd definitely replace it.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
The same thing just happened to my brother about a month ago. The surge came in through the ethernet cable and fried the port.

The board acts stable. It runs memtest for hours without trouble, but after a few hours of normal use it starts crashing randomly. I ended up scrapping the motheroard and putting a new system together for him. It was an old P4 machine, so no big loss.

You'll just have to use it and see if it starts acting up on you.
Click to expand...

Well I prime'd it last night with no problems and it was on for about 10 hours total with no issues when I turned it off before going to work today. Was your brother's computer on when it happened? I'm quite happy mine wasn't...

Michael Daly said:
You should have a surge protector on the cable and/or ethernet. Some of them interfere with cable or ethernet, so do your homework before buying. If you have DSL, you should have the same on the telephone line - APC makes a good, failsafe phone line surge protector - inline model for about $35 MSLP. I don't have a specific recommendation for cable or ethernet, but APC likely is one of the better brands for this sort of thing.
Click to expand...

My current surge protector has coax protection, but I never used it :(. I think it's now time to invest in a UPS and protect everything. Although the odds are it won't happen again soon, we had two power surges within 5 years, though they were related to trees falling on wires rather than direct lightning strikes.

Nenu said:
No, worry if something doesnt work.
Unless you want complete peace of mind, in which case replace the motherboard.
Click to expand...

enginurd said:
If the mobo is still under warranty, I'd definitely replace it.
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I'm the type of person that worries a lot, so I'm obviously thinking about replacing the mobo. Everything appears to be fine but I guess I'll never know if the shock compromised another part of the board until it fails or doesn't. I thought about RMAing it, since I bought it around 11 months ago, but it's really my only PC and I don't want to be without it for 2-3 weeks (Gigabyte's turnaround time and they won't cross-ship). I have enough to do before I go back to school and being without my main computer is not something I want to do.
 
I bought the APC BE750G a few weeks ago. It is the cheapest UPS from APC with coax surge protection (that I could find). It's on sale for $80 this week at Best Buy and you might be able to use one of the currently available 10% or 12% off coupons.
 
I have two of them. One powers the following at half load:

MAIN PC

SERVER

20" Widescreen LCD

Cable Modem

Router
 
RWalker2 said:
... I'm the type of person that worries a lot, so I'm obviously thinking about replacing the mobo. Everything appears to be fine but I guess I'll never know if the shock compromised another part of the board until it fails or doesn't. I thought about RMAing it, since I bought it around 11 months ago, but it's really my only PC and I don't want to be without it for 2-3 weeks (Gigabyte's turnaround time and they won't cross-ship). I have enough to do before I go back to school and being without my main computer is not something I want to do.
Click to expand...

Well, if you have another system to use in the meantime, I would think now is the time to RMA, rather than having a problem in the future, while you're in school, or during another, more critical timeframe. But hey, if right now is critical, then you gotta work out a solution, right? Got a Fry's nearby? :p You could always pickup a cheap board off of the forums, too, and keep it afterwards as a backup board.
 
I don't know about you guys, but I simply unplug my surge protector from the wall outlet and disconnect the cable line from the modem when a thunder storm approaches. I'd rather do without my PC for a few hours than trust a surge protector that probably won't stop the surge from a lightning strike should one occur.
 
dhc014 said:
I bought the APC BE750G a few weeks ago. It is the cheapest UPS from APC with coax surge protection (that I could find). It's on sale for $80 this week at Best Buy and you might be able to use one of the currently available 10% or 12% off coupons.
Click to expand...

StarsFan4Life said:
Purchase the APC BX900R. CC has it for $99.
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I'm looking at this Cyberpower model http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

I know its more expensive, but after all of these surges I don't want to skimp. I won't be living too much longer at my current address (in school most of the year and I'm a senior) but it will still be a good investment for a future residence.

enginurd said:
Well, if you have another system to use in the meantime, I would think now is the time to RMA, rather than having a problem in the future, while you're in school, or during another, more critical timeframe. But hey, if right now is critical, then you gotta work out a solution, right? Got a Fry's nearby? :p You could always pickup a cheap board off of the forums, too, and keep it afterwards as a backup board.
Click to expand...

Two things: you're right, now is not very critical and would likely be the best time. However, I've had a rough summer and I only have 1 week off before I go back to school and would really just like to kick back and watch some Lost and The Office in 720p. My other machines aren't capable of that. At school I have a backup laptop I can use. Second, I would consider picking up a replacement, but I really need it to be the same board so I don't have to reformat. My current installation has been uber-stable and I don't want to deal with that hassle. Do you think I could pick up another P35-based board and manage, or do I need an exact replacement?

Teh Lurv said:
I don't know about you guys, but I simply unplug my surge protector from the wall outlet and disconnect the cable line from the modem when a thunder storm approaches. I'd rather do without my PC for a few hours than trust a surge protector that probably won't stop the surge from a lightning strike should one occur.
Click to expand...

I always turn off my PC (tower, monitor, speakers), but only in the worst storms do I usually unplug my surge protector. I did it earlier this summer but this storm wasn't particularly bad on the lightning and like I said it was rather calm for 10 minutes until this freak lightning strike occurred. I guess I hoped it would just fry the cable modem rather than traveling through and frying network components.
 
RWalker2 said:
I'm looking at this Cyberpower model http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102070

I know its more expensive, but after all of these surges I don't want to skimp. I won't be living too much longer at my current address (in school most of the year and I'm a senior) but it will still be a good investment for a future residence.
Click to expand...
Everything I've read about CyberPower UPS has been good. buy.com has better prices on Back-UPS than newegg and you can even step up to the 1500VA / 900W model for the same price of $146.99

I think that both of these units are excessive. Paying more doesn't necessarily give you more protection, so you're likely just paying for the ability to run stuff longer when the power goes out.
 
RWalker2 said:
... Second, I would consider picking up a replacement, but I really need it to be the same board so I don't have to reformat. My current installation has been uber-stable and I don't want to deal with that hassle. Do you think I could pick up another P35-based board and manage, or do I need an exact replacement?...
Click to expand...

If you don't want the config to change at all, you'd need the same exact board.
 
dhc014 said:
Everything I've read about CyberPower UPS has been good. buy.com has better prices on Back-UPS than newegg and you can even step up to the 1500VA / 900W model for the same price of $146.99

I think that both of these units are excessive. Paying more doesn't necessarily give you more protection, so you're likely just paying for the ability to run stuff longer when the power goes out.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion of buy.com. Definitely a lot cheaper than newegg! They are definitely excessive but you know, after 3 different surges, I don't mind spending $50 more than a basic model.

enginurd said:
If you don't want the config to change at all, you'd need the same exact board.
Click to expand...

So what do you think, try to obtain a backup mobo, keep this one running and hope for the best? I wouldn't mind shelling out some money for piece of mind in case anything does happen. Everything seems okay so far.
 
enginurd? :)

Also: any reason I should consider a more expensive APC over the Cyberpower unit?
 
While I understand the "want" to keep a stable config in-tact, there is no telling what will happen with that board now that its been a victim of a surge. So its really up to you if you'd rather wait and see rather than take preemptive measures. You have to weigh out the worst case scenario and decide for yourself.

If I had no other system to use, and my only system was hit with a surge, but everything seemed fine except the LAN port, then I'd probably wait until I experience more problems before replacing stuff. If I had another system to use in the meantime, or if I didn't really need the system for a few weeks, then I'd RMA the board while its still in warranty. Personally, I have several computers; so when one has an issue, I always have another one to use. When I wasn't as fortunate (read: poor college student), I had the computer labs or a friend/roommate in case of such an event.

If you've got the cash to afford a backup board, then get a cheap board and use it in the meantime. When your main board comes back from RMA, sell the backup board. Or, you could take this as an opportunity to upgrade your board, and sell the RMA replacement when it gets back. But if you want to keep the same config, you'll need the exact same model board... and again, you can always sell one of the two later on.

APC is the "standard" I guess, but I don't see anything wrong with Cyberpower.
 
enginurd said:
While I understand the "want" to keep a stable config in-tact, there is no telling what will happen with that board now that its been a victim of a surge. So its really up to you if you'd rather wait and see rather than take preemptive measures. You have to weigh out the worst case scenario and decide for yourself.

If I had no other system to use, and my only system was hit with a surge, but everything seemed fine except the LAN port, then I'd probably wait until I experience more problems before replacing stuff. If I had another system to use in the meantime, or if I didn't really need the system for a few weeks, then I'd RMA the board while its still in warranty. Personally, I have several computers; so when one has an issue, I always have another one to use. When I wasn't as fortunate (read: poor college student), I had the computer labs or a friend/roommate in case of such an event.

If you've got the cash to afford a backup board, then get a cheap board and use it in the meantime. When your main board comes back from RMA, sell the backup board. Or, you could take this as an opportunity to upgrade your board, and sell the RMA replacement when it gets back. But if you want to keep the same config, you'll need the exact same model board... and again, you can always sell one of the two later on.

APC is the "standard" I guess, but I don't see anything wrong with Cyberpower.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I have my laptop at school if I need a spare, that's no problem. However, I don't have anything near the power of my current desktop, thus my desire to keep it running.

My thinking is that since the computer was off, hopefully just the jack was affected. If it was on I bet it would've fried the board. If I get a cheap replacement mobo (same model) then I can swap the mobos whenever I have time to do it and I still have a backup PC if something goes wrong. Seems like the least intrusive way. I'm not concerned about spending $50 for a backup. I could also get the backup, use it, and then RMA and have the RMA'd board as a spare or to sell, but I'm not too concerned. I'm a senior in college and have some savings, so I can forsee a new config in 2 years time perhaps. This rig has been great and I don't need/want to upgrade anything at the moment (read: I want to keep saving).

I know there's little way of knowing, but my major concern is that if my current board does have problems, should I be worried about it taking out other components? Hopefully it just gets unstable...
 
Can't know for sure. The surge could have affected more than just the board, but not likely, and theres no way to tell. Just hope things are still under warranty if and when they start to die, hehe.
 
enginurd said:
Can't know for sure. The surge could have affected more than just the board, but not likely, and theres no way to tell. Just hope things are still under warranty if and when they start to die, hehe.
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Well I have a year left on the motherboard warranty, so we'll see. I ordered the Cyberpower UPS last night. Really excited about getting that and being able to let my pc run without much worry. At school my situation is better and I've left it on for many weeks at a time, rather than being scared every time there is a 30% chance of storms, lol.
 
Bumping this because I can buy the same board, but a different rev - 2.1 compared to the 1.0 I have. The 2.1 deleted some ports and added more USB on the back panel. Is this exact enough to swap in without reformatting?
 
You can swap in any motherboard without reformatting, my current windows install has gone from Athlon 64 to Core 2 Duo.

Make a backup in case you have any problems (always do this!).
download the latest motherboard and graphics card drivers for the new system.

Uninstall the graphics card drivers and motherboard drivers.
Run driver cleaner pro to remove any traces.
Shut down, do not reboot into windows.

Fit the new motherboard and boot the machine.
It will detect all the new hardware and prompt for driver disks.
After it has installed everything, install the motherboard drivers again as it sometimes automatically prefers other drivers already on the system.
Install graphics card driver.
Job done.


Unless using more exotic add in RAID controllers etc, there is only one exception to this:
Many newer motherboards come with the ICH9R onboard SATA RAID controller.
This has 2 modes of operation, SATA 150 (normal SATA mode) and SATA 3.0Gbps (RAID mode).
It is best to run in RAID mode even for a non RAID setup as the burst rate is twice as fast.
However...

The mode is changed in the CMOS and once changed, different drivers are required if booting from that controller.
This means the drivers need to be installed before hand.
On XP, you can only install the driver while installing Windows, its a nightmare to put the driver in once Windows is installed already.
I've read conflicting reports whether this is also true for Vista.

So if swapping motherboards and the new board has an ICH9R controller, you probably cant use that controller in RAID mode for the boot drive.
Configure it to non RAID or use the other SATA controllers ports.
 
I'm guessing you wouldn't even have to go through all that if you got simply a new revision. However, it would be best to update the chipset drivers.
 
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