Is my motherboard fried?

[marcus24]

Last night my PC turned off due to a
lightning strike. This morning when I
turned it on, the graphics card wasn't
being detected by the monitor but it's fan
was spinning.
So I used the onboard graphics which
were working fine. After logging in, I
noticed that the onboard LAN wasn't
working. I tried rebooting but it didn't fix
it. Also, the computer restarts itself
immediately after shutting down.
Is it the graphics card or is my
motherboard fried?

My motherboard is a Gigabyte GA 78LMT
S2P and the GPU is an AMD HD 6850.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ali1988]

Try moving the GPU to another PCI-E slot. Sounds like you've damaged both gpu and mobo, but if you're lucky, could just be damaged slot.

 

[marcus24]

Try moving the GPU to another PCI-E slot. Sounds like you've damaged both gpu and mobo, but if you're lucky, could just be damaged slot.

Unfortunately, there's only one PCI E slot on the motherboard. I'm gonna test the card on my friend's PC tomorrow to see if it works. Anyway, could it be just a faulty power supply that's causing the problem?

 

[denis280]

Good chance it is fried

 

[marcus24]

Okay, so I tested the card with another PC and there's nothing wrong with it. So it's definitely a dead PCI E slot and a stuffed LAN port on my motherboard. Well, time to buy a new one.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Okay, so I tested the card with another PC and there's nothing wrong with it. So it's definitely a dead PCI E slot and a stuffed LAN port on my motherboard. Well, time to buy a new one.

Marcus . . . . MAR-cus! Marcus! Marcus!

Here it is, 2014. I KNOW I have friends who only rely on a $30 surge-suppressor to power their PCs, but it was back in 1993 in Virginia that a very ugly thunderstorm did the same thing to me. I bought my first BBU -- battery backup. It was a Tripplite unit that would only support 350W, but it did the job!

APC and Tripplite are old established BBU-makers. CyberPower -- I now have one of those -- also seems decent. I think I'm using a single CyberPower to feed two computers. Of course, it's easy with one computer to program the BBU software to shut down your computer after only 3 minutes of battery power.

I see it like this. Would you take a job with the Forest Service without a health-insurance policy? Would you drive your car with an expired car-insurance policy? No.

They cost some money. You might be able to find a 1000W+ APC unit for between $100 and $120. Batteries should last 3 to 5 years, I think.

AND. You can replace those batteries by buying the right ones from a battery reseller. Even so -- I figured that the batteries usually cost 50 to 75% of the BBU itself. So when the batteries aren't up to snuff, I allocate the used BBU to something less worrisome -- like my Home Theater Receiver and TV. Or -- I just run it down to the public electronic recycling center and buy a new one.