Is it safe? NEED EVERYONE TO LOOK AT!!!

[qixstix]

Is it safe to have a computer on during a thunderstorm with no lighting?

[JonDunn]

I leave mine on all the time, although Id say you should probably turn ALL electronics off during a lightning storm. Dont suppose a thunderstorm would hurt??

[Multidigits]

You should have a very good surge protector and it doesn't hurt to have a backup power supply.

[trust me]

Let lightning get in either your phone line or your breaker box and you'll start turning it off during thunderstorms. I've replaced the power box once, the modem once and a usb port (?) once. A little loose juice in the wiring will find your computer every time. Even static on a sunny day will fry stuff.

I try to unplug the power and the phone when I can.

[ez]

if there is no lighting...and it's night time; i can't see
and a storm without lightning..............is a storm without thunder.........ez

[turk2di]

With no lightening present, u should b Ok. I turn mine off when its crackin outside, just in case.

[Wildcat]

A few years ago one morning after a night of thunderstorms I tried to turn on my PC and found out it was fried. I did NOT have it on durning the storms.

Turning it off does no good. The lighting comes in though the phone line or/and the power line so no mater if it's on or off it still gets hit. The only real protection you can get is a good surge protector with both power and phone line protection.

[Duster]

Turning it off does no good. The lighting comes in though the phone line or/and the power line so no mater if it's on or off it still gets hit. The only real protection you can get is a good surge protector with both power and phone line protection.

Be sure and check if the surge protector you have/purchase has the phone jack accessory. A lot of them don't have the phone jack places. We had a lighting strike real close a few days back. Got both Direct TV boxes and the connection between two computers. One computer would hook up to the internet one wouldn't. It took the ISP guy to come out and track the problem down. Shorted a cable that runs from one to the other off the DSL modem.

This was with one of the best surge protectors on the market hooked up. I would say if it hits close enough nothing would help tho. This strike hit what we think was the Direct TV dish and came thru those cables to the house. Hit the house circuts hard enough to set off the smoke alarms for a couple minutes and gave us a scare.

[trust me]

It just takes a trickle of exta juice to jump the on/off switch of anything, computer, TV, microwave. The phone lines are easy pickings for lightning too. My daughter has a battery operated door bell for her bedroom. Totally enclosed system, insulated wire from the button to the bell, and a close lightning strike will ring her doorbell everytime. I've got a breaker for the upstairs bedrooms that gets tripped on a close one too. It doesn't help that I've got a 100 ft oak about 30 feet behind the house...I'm sure it's roots are growing around the basement foundation and they conduct a little free juice into the house on occasion.

An NCR guy told me a while back that if you didn't spend at least 60-80 bucks on a surge protector, then you were just fooling yourself.

[corndogggy]

Turning it off does no good. The lighting comes in though the phone line or/and the power line so no mater if it's on or off it still gets hit. The only real protection you can get is a good surge protector with both power and phone line protection.

I'll have to disagree... the only real protection is to unplug the thing. :cool: If you really want to work during a storm, yeah at least get a surge protector, which has the added advantage of having a high amount of insurance which can be used to replace your PC if lightning does in fact take it out, but if you have some extra money I would highly recommend getting a good UPS, which has a built in battery and software that will gently shut your PC down if the power goes out then the battery runs low. You can get a cheap one for maybe $45 but the battery doesn't last any time, probably just long enough to shut it down for one computer. Last one I bought allows a powerful computer to stay running for about 10 minutes, it costs about $200.

[TurkeyFoot]

If you got good insurance they will buy you a new one!:)