Did lightning pop my sound system?

[rocketbubba]

Here's the story: I'm using onboard sound. All seemed to be fine until a sudden thunderstorm popped up yesterday. Lightning flashed and lights in the house flickered, but the computer seemed to be fine (the computer is on a surge-protector). Immediately the computer was turned off and, as soon as the storm passed, the computer was restarted and all seemed to be normal. However, when I tried a game, the sound was garbled, there was a loud buzzing/hissing noise coming from the speakers (although there was sound) and the joystick control was erratic. I disabled and reinstalled the sound drivers, but this didn't help. I recalibrated the joystick, but that didn't help either. All other components in the computer appear to be functioning normally.

My question is, can just one part of a computer fail if there's a power surge? It seems strange that only the onboard sound would be affected. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Derango]

Lightning damage can do strange things. By the way...just turning the computer off isn't enough. You need to actually unplug it from the wall.

 

[rocketbubba]

Yeah, the family (I wasn't home at the time) did unplug it thank goodness! Looks like lightning found a weak link in the sound system. I wondered if it was the speakers that got zapped, but that wouldn't explain the joystick control. Is it possible that the surge went through the speakers and into the sound system on the motherboard? (The speakers are also plugged into the surge protector, but I know they're not 100% protection.)

 

[Derango]

If the speakers were pluged into a connected outlet, and they connect to the computer, that is a point of entry for the surge. It could be possible.

 

[BillDKiller]

I had a similar thing happen. There was a blackout that occurred while my computer was running (I wasn't home at the time). When I got home and started it back up the on-board sound was gone. Tried everything to get it back, new drivers, etc.. but no go. The surge protectors don't really do anything usually. They are just a little filter, but they can't handle anything big. Well, it worked out OK for me as I bought a new sound card which sounds awesome.

 

[MWink]

I had a Tripp-Lite UPS fail once and send surges through my speakers (I could hear them) and it fried my (FAVORITE) sound card. Luckly I figured out what was happening before it fried my other sound card. When Tripp-Lite denied my claim I sold the UPS and bought an APC. I've never had a power related problem since.