Lightning damage - PC (1 Viewer)

[Dan M~]

Well last Thursday we had a big storm, and I lost my PC. I was on a surge protector (power and phone line), but the cable modem was not protected. The cable modem (mine) is toast and so is the MB. I have called my insurance co. and should be contacted by the Adjuster today. The computer was put together and upgraded over many years. It was a PIII/800MHz, 256 meg ram (PC100), 2 HD (4 gig and 800 meg), US robotics moden (phone), Moterola cable modem, SIII video card (32 meg), 3 1/2 and 5 1/4 floppies, Sound Blaster sound card, Mag 15" monitor. The scanner was unpluged so should be OK. All was in a mid tower with 300 watt PS. I'm not sure how much was fried by the strike. How much value should I put on this system? Anyone deal with insurance co's on this type of claim? Any help?
(Also lost my DVD player)

 

[Dan M~]

UPDATE-

The insurance company wants me to take the computer to an electronics repair shop that they recommended. The shop will evaluate the status of the computer and the peripherals.

Anyone have experience with insurance companies and a claim like this? Any recommendations?

Thanks.

 

[Justin Lane]

A relative of mine had a similar experience a bit over a year ago. Lightning strike that wiped out the motherboard of 2 computers and a couple of printers. In his case the insurance company replaced the damaged components based on his assessment.

It sounds like your insurance company is trying to avoid paying for a new computer, and if possible may just give you a new motherboard or other peripherals. If the repair shop is free of cost (or the insurance will reimburse) just take it there and let them handle the problem. You should receive whatever you need to get the system running again, but make sure everything does indeed run including hard drives before taking a recommendation from them.

J

 

[Dan M~]

Hi Justin,

I have the "replace with equal" claus in my insurance, which means that they will not prorate the value. Seems they want to see if it can be fixed before they try to "replace with equal". I looked at the MB and there is a burned hole in a chip on the board (PCI controler? Hard to tell, most of the lettering is gone). The chip can not be replaced. I wonder if the repair shop will even look beyound that. The ram and cpu are probably gone or at least unreliable. I would like the HD's back as there are some digital pics that I have not backed up on them.

I've started looking at P4 MB's and what a complicated mess. There are at leaest 3 types of ram. Whats the best chipset for the P4? Lots of work to do.

Thanks again for the input.