Redditor shows what happens when lightning strikes your PC
© Greatfulx A Reddit user has shared photos of a damaged gaming PC after a lightning strike reportedly entered an apartment through the coaxial internet line. The surge damaged the router and appears to have reached the PC through Ethernet.
The damage was concentrated around the motherboard’s Ethernet port. The shared photos also show burn marks near the wall and damage to the router. According to the user, the strike hit during a recent storm and traveled through the apartment complex’s coaxial cable infrastructure.
Source: Greatfulx
This is a good reminder that unplugging a PC from the wall is not always enough. I once lost a PC to a lightning strike despite disconnecting everything from the power outlets before the storm arrived. The only cable I left connected was a 56K modem line. That was enough to total the system. At least it was not burned like this one, it just never woke up again.
Copper signal lines can still carry a surge into a system. That includes coaxial cables, Ethernet cables and old phone lines. A surge can enter through a modem or router and then move into connected hardware through network cables.
The Reddit thread also pointed to a possible grounding issue on the outside coax connection. Some users claimed the visible connector should have been bonded to ground. The original poster said they were already discussing the issue with the service provider.
We covered a similar case last month, where a GeForce RTX 3070 reportedly survived a lightning strike and fire after the motherboard and power supply absorbed most of the surge. This new case went the other way, with the PC motherboard taking visible damage near the network port.
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