[Coco] Storm damage

[gene heskett]

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012 01:24:46 PM Bill did opine:

> Well, I'm back where I started. We had a terrific storm last night and
> now the HP I got from another member on the list is history. It wasn't
> running, but it was plugged in. Luckily, nothing was hooked to it. So
> now I don't have a PC that I can use.
> 
> 
> 
> I have an old G5 Mac, but it doesn't have a COM1 port. So, until I can
> scrounge around and find another PC, I'm out of luck.
 
Lightning Bill?
Checklist:

Monitor separate? S/B plugged into the same outlet.

Static grounded (3rd round pin)?  No? All bets are against you.

Line cords all effectively plugged into the same outlet?  No? All bets are 
against you again.

I got tired of that lightning blowing stuff scene about 20 years ago, 
blowing modems etc every time mother nature heard somebody call that stuff 
butter, and went through the wiring to one of the wall plugs here in this 
room and soldered all the joints in every junction box clear back to the 
circuit breaker.  Then I, in time, bought a huge all in one power strip 
with surge arrestors for the power line, the telephone line and even a coax 
surge limiter to run the cable tv circuit through.  7 breaker protected 
outlets on it plus those data/tv lines.

A 1500WA rated ups is plugged into that, and 3 6 outlet power strips to 
power stuff that needs a gracefull shutdown are plugged into the ups.

The rest of the stuff in this room, printers, net switches etc, are plugged 
into power strips plugged into the big strip.  So I am tied together with a 
common ground between everything that all comes from one single wall plug.  
A star ground in the parlance.

This whole rooms contents can bounce 50 to 100 thousand volts when 
lightning hits the transformer pole across the street, but it all bounces 
in unison so nothing is hurt.

I haven't lost anything except a couple of 15' USB extension hubs that went 
to the basement where the coco is similarly wired all to one strip, but it 
isn't on this same branch circuit so the USB stuff got hammered. Twice, but 
since I bought some new cables from a different vendor that are 10 meters 
long and re-arranged the hubs downstairs, they are either tougher stuff or 
I haven't been tapped hard enough in the last year.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
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