PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

[TELVM]

A friend got his PC zapped by a nearby lightning strike. Says Mobo, CPU and GPU are dead, he has tested them with another PSU and they don't work .

About the injured PSU, he says it just trips the house's residual-current circuit breaker whenever he switches it on.

He knows I like tinkering PSUs and has asked me if I could resuscitate his PSU. I've told him that after a strike that has screwed the whole PC, chances are his PSU is FUBAR .


What do you guys think? What have been your experiences dealing with lightning-damaged PSUs?

[Compgeke]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

After a lightning strike I wouldn't even bother trying to fix it. I wouldn't be surprised if it ate some traces off the board and\or killed nearly everything in its path.

It would be fun to open just to assess the damage but I've seen a few lightning damaged things before and I wouldn't consider it worth the effort.

[everell]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

On the other hand......if you fix it you will learn something.

[c_hegge]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

I want to see some pictures of the carnage

Here, lightning strikes almost always come through the phone line, which kills the ADSL Modem/router and/or Ethernet controller on the motherboard.

[stj]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

seconded - foto's, lots of them!

[TELVM]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

I've told him not to junk the wreck, so next time I see him (he lives quite aways) I'll snatch the body for forensics .

[CapSwapper]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

no surge protector on wall outlet? It would have took the brunt of the hit.

[Khron]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

Trips the RCD, you say? Some Y-caps failed short, perhaps?

Unless some sort of arcing "welded" the line or neutral to the case (which sounds a bit less likely)...

[Behemot]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

Yeah may be something directly on filtration, MOV, X/Y caps etc.

[ben7]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

Trips the RCD, you say? Some Y-caps failed short, perhaps?

Unless some sort of arcing "welded" the line or neutral to the case (which sounds a bit less likely)...

Yeah that's what I think. You know, Y-caps aren't completely fail-safe

Or perhaps it has fake Y-caps

[Khron]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i recall reading somewhere that X-caps were designed to fail open, and Y-caps to fail short. Or was it the other way around?

[ben7]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i recall reading somewhere that X-caps were designed to fail open, and Y-caps to fail short. Or was it the other way around?

Neither of them are meant to fail short. If they do, they could pose a fire and/or shock hazard!

[Behemot]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

It was that usually ordinary ceramic caps go short. Metalized foil usually loose capacity and should not get shorted even if not safety (the foil vaporizes when there are mini-shorts internally untill most of the area disappears and it ceases to exist as a capacitor).

Safety caps should open in each case.

[senz_90]

Re: PC PSU damaged by lightning strike

Third request! Pict of burnt PSUs if your friend give it next time