Zeused!
Zeused!
Note: Photo ©
Sean McCormick.
Thunderstorms in Hong Kong should never be ignored as a threat.
A morning storm rife with lightning killed the base of the cordless phone, but not the rest of the equipment connected to the power bar. I assumed the surge protection had kicked in but didn't understand why the phone hadn't escaped.
Regardless, I resolved to buy an uninterruptible power supply unit as soon as possible to prevent more serious damage: to the computer to be precise.
I never got the chance.
The thunderstorms eased up but dumped tons of rain during the day, so much so that going out would have been a bad idea. It's called a Black Rainstorm.
Later that evening, the fireworks resumed in earnest. To be safe, I shut down the computer and turned off the power bar.
I was sitting on the couch when a massive lightning bolt struck somewhere close, tattooing my retinas and shaking with house with the ensuing thunderclap.
Instant blackout.
At the same moment, I heard a loud pop from the office in conjunction with a momentary bright glow. The stink of burnt electrical components told me all I needed to know. I grabbed the flashlight and in its beam could see tendrils of smoke rising from the crisped computer.
After resetting the main breaker, I discovered what had happened: the system had been cooked through the telephone line, which I surmised in retrospect had been the killer of the cordless phone.
The lightning had fried the modem, taking out the sound card, the LAN card and the power supply unit at the same time. After removing the dead parts, I inspected the rest of the gear, including the video and firewire cards, as well as the motherboard, going so far as to remove it from the case for closer inspection.
It didn't look damaged in any way, but there was no way to tell until I replaced the power supply.
To make matters worse, the phone line was messed up. The office phone had a permanent busy signal and the fax machine gave nothing but dead air.
But that would have to wait until morning; it was late and there was no point trying to fix everything.
The next day, I unplugged the phone cord from the computer, and then checked the cord connected to the fax. The end plugged into the wall socket had been blackened. I replaced the burnt cord and checked the line, this time getting a normal dial tone.
The next order of business was a trip to the Mong Kok Computer Centre to buy replacement parts (except the modem) and a UPS unit.
Once home, I installed the basics to see if the computer would boot. It wouldn't; the motherboard had been zapped.
Not knowing if the remaining cards, RAM chips, hard drives and DVD burner were also dead, I took the whole system back to the computer centre. There I had the motherboard replaced and tested the remaining hardware.
The system booted.
Despite the frustrations, not having lost data or needing to replace additional hardware was an immense relief.
Back home I spent the rest of the evening installing the new components, installing the drivers and checking the rest of the equipment and peripherals to make sure they worked.
The computer is now plugged into the UPS, and no phone line will ever come near the case.
I'll be damned if I offer up another silicon sacrifice to Zeus.
June 11, 2006
Next Tale - Rule #5