Dead pc after thunderstorm. Mobo toast?

[XRTRazor]

Hiya, so the other night we had an unexpected thunderstorm where I live and the very first lightning strike in the area seems to have killed my PC. I was on my pc browsing the web when the lightning hit. The power went out for literally just a second, just long enough to make the lights flicker and the PC turn off, there were no sparks, no burnt smells etc.. Upon attempting to restart the PC I was greeted with complete silence. No beeps, no fans,no lights, absolutely nothing.

Immediately suspected the psu(Antec NEO Eco 620w) was fried I unplugged it from my mobo(Asrock Z68 Pro3 Gen3 LGA1155) and did the paperclip test, the fan I had connected spun right but I know that alone doesn't prove that it's good, just not completely dead. I then got my multimeter and checked the voltages on all the connectors.
The voltages seem to be right where they are supposed to be. Again not sure it's proof it's not bad since it's not under a load but still.

So now I turned my attention to the Mobo. I plugged the psu back into the mobo and removed everything else the CPU(i5-2500k) and it's heatsink fan, the case power and reset switch connectors, and one stick of memory(GSkill RipjawX DDR3 1600) which I eventually removed as well with no change. Pressing the power button did nothing, no fans/lights etc(pressing the reset button had same results). Next I cleared cmos settings both by using the jumper then, after that got no results, by removing the battery(and replacing it with a new one although the old one was still showing 3v). At this point still nothing. Next thing on the list was checking the case power switch. I unplugged the case power switch and using a flat screwdriver touched the two prongs that it was connected to and still nothing.

At this point I'm fairly sure the mobo is fried, and thinking the PSU is fine (although I don't have another system to test the psu in nor another psu to test with this system to confirm).

So I have a few questions.
1. Is my assumption that the psu is fine and mobo is dead reasonable?
2. Are there any other tests I can do that would either verify this or that would point to something else being the issue?
3. What is the likelihood that my CPU, GPU, Memory and HDD died as well?
4. Any suggestions on a replacement mobo? preferably in the 80-150USD range from any major/reputable online company.


One other thought that has me abit puzzled is how the lightning strike actually killed w/e it actually killed. This part of the house is an addition and when the did the electrical they installed a surge protector at the breaker box, the pc is plugged into a power strip with a surge protector(albit not an expensive one) and finally I thought most modern PSUs had some form of surge protection built in. Also I had a tv and the pc monitor turned on and connected to the same strip as the tower and neither were damaged. And if it came through the Ethernet cable I would have expected it to fry the router and cable modem as well but it didn't.

Anyway, sorry for the long post lol.

 

[ffg7]

try another psu or try current 1 on another computer but that might be risky.

 

[thx1138v2]

If the disk drives spin up and you don't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary, the PSU is probably OK.

I don't know that mobo but if it has LED's and they are not lighting up, that's probably the problem. Look for damaged capacitors on the mobo. If you don't know what that looks like search "damaged motherboard capacitor" and you'll find lots of photos.

I've had problems previously when the power went off, back on, off, back on, off, and back on again all within about 3 seconds and it didn't affect everything - just one component. If I remember correctly it was a disk drive.

 

[XRTRazor]

If the disk drives spin up and you don't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary, the PSU is probably OK.

I don't know that mobo but if it has LED's and they are not lighting up, that's probably the problem. Look for damaged capacitors on the mobo. If you don't know what that looks like search "damaged motherboard capacitor" and you'll find lots of photos.

I've had problems previously when the power went off, back on, off, back on, off, and back on again all within about 3 seconds and it didn't affect everything - just one component. If I remember correctly it was a disk drive.

This mobo doesn't have leds unfortunately. I don't see any scorch marks anywhere on the mobo or burst/bulging caps. Also on my initial paperclip test on the psu I had unplugged everything from mobo but had forgotten to unplug one of my disk drives from the psu and that spun up as well.

One of my main concerns is how likely it is that the cpu(and to a lesser extent the gpu) survived. Because if the CPU likely survived I'd just order a new 1155 mobo but if it's unlikely it survived I'd probably get both a 1150 board and cpu this time around since there are more options than with the 1155s atm.

 

[thx1138v2]

If the disk drives spin up and you don't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary, the PSU is probably OK.

I don't know that mobo but if it has LED's and they are not lighting up, that's probably the problem. Look for damaged capacitors on the mobo. If you don't know what that looks like search "damaged motherboard capacitor" and you'll find lots of photos.

I've had problems previously when the power went off, back on, off, back on, off, and back on again all within about 3 seconds and it didn't affect everything - just one component. If I remember correctly it was a disk drive.

This mobo doesn't have leds unfortunately. I don't see any scorch marks anywhere on the mobo or burst/bulging caps. Also on my initial paperclip test on the psu I had unplugged everything from mobo but had forgotten to unplug one of my disk drives from the psu and that spun up as well.

One of my main concerns is how likely it is that the cpu(and to a lesser extent the gpu) survived. Because if the CPU likely survived I'd just order a new 1155 mobo but if it's unlikely it survived I'd probably get both a 1150 board and cpu this time around since there are more options than with the 1155s atm.

I don't think there's any way to tell about the CPU without testing it. It would really depend on exactly what failed on the mobo. You might take it to a local shop, explain to them what happened, and ask them to test it for you. Just don't tell them that you might replace both the CPU and mobo if it's bad before they test it. That would give them incentive to say it's bad. It would be nice if they'll let you watch them test it. At the same time, if it is bad you might consider buying from them rather than over the web. It might be a few bucks more but you'll develop a relationship and have a go to guy to help you out.

Ditto the RAM.

I think it's unlikely the GPU would be damaged unless both CPU and RAM are damaged. If the mobo, CPU, and RAM are all damaged you might want to back off and think about a completely new build. I would suggest a different mobo manufacturer if that's the case.

 

[XRTRazor]

If the disk drives spin up and you don't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary, the PSU is probably OK.

I don't know that mobo but if it has LED's and they are not lighting up, that's probably the problem. Look for damaged capacitors on the mobo. If you don't know what that looks like search "damaged motherboard capacitor" and you'll find lots of photos.

I've had problems previously when the power went off, back on, off, back on, off, and back on again all within about 3 seconds and it didn't affect everything - just one component. If I remember correctly it was a disk drive.

This mobo doesn't have leds unfortunately. I don't see any scorch marks anywhere on the mobo or burst/bulging caps. Also on my initial paperclip test on the psu I had unplugged everything from mobo but had forgotten to unplug one of my disk drives from the psu and that spun up as well.

One of my main concerns is how likely it is that the cpu(and to a lesser extent the gpu) survived. Because if the CPU likely survived I'd just order a new 1155 mobo but if it's unlikely it survived I'd probably get both a 1150 board and cpu this time around since there are more options than with the 1155s atm.

I don't think there's any way to tell about the CPU without testing it. It would really depend on exactly what failed on the mobo. You might take it to a local shop, explain to them what happened, and ask them to test it for you. Just don't tell them that you might replace both the CPU and mobo if it's bad before they test it. That would give them incentive to say it's bad. It would be nice if they'll let you watch them test it. At the same time, if it is bad you might consider buying from them rather than over the web. It might be a few bucks more but you'll develop a relationship and have a go to guy to help you out.

Ditto the RAM.

I think it's unlikely the GPU would be damaged unless both CPU and RAM are damaged. If the mobo, CPU, and RAM are all damaged you might want to back off and think about a completely new build. I would suggest a different mobo manufacturer if that's the case.

unfortunately I live kinda out in the sticks and there isn't really a nearby repair shop so not really an option. Think what I'm going to do is make the switch to to an 1150 socket board/cpu and get an Asrock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer mobo and a i5-4590 cpu since the mobo seems relatively good for the price and the 4590 should atleast give similar performance to my 2500k(since I never really got around to OCing it). There are likely better(and likely more expensive) options for both but since I'm somewhat cash strapped atm this should atleast get me back to where I was prior to the surge without completely breaking the bank in case I need to replace something else along the line.

 

[westom]

One other thought that has me abit puzzled is how the lightning strike actually killed w/e it actually killed. .

Surges do damage by hunting inside for earth ground. To be damaged, a computer must have both an incoming path and another outgoing path. That means every wire inside every cable to a computer must be identified.

A most common incoming path is AC mains. Normally, superior protection inside a PSU makes surges irrrelevant. However if a protector is adjacent to that computer, then a surge (ie on hot brown wire) is connected to safety ground (green) wire. Now a surge bypasses PSU protection. Is connected directly to a motherboard.

That is the incoming path. Phone lines or cable are often properly earthed to provide superior surge protection. However that is also an ideal outgoing path from a motherboard. Damage is often on the outgoing path. A surge will pass through many parts. But only one typically fails.

No protector does protection. Best protection is a hardwire from each incoming utility wire, low impedance (ie 'less than 3 meters'), to earth. However many wires (ie AC electric) cannot be earthed directly,. So we do a next best thing. We connect every incoming wire to earth via a 'whole house' protector. But again, no protector does protection. That protector is only effective when it connects low impedance to what does protection - single point earth ground. A protector only does what that hardwire would do better.

If your 'whole house' protector was not properly earthed (and most sparkies never learn this part), then it failed to do what 'whole house' protectors do so well. And so that surge was all but invited inside to go hunting for earth destructively via appliances - ie your computer.

Again, it is electricity. To understand why damage happens and to install effective protection means identifying every possible incoming path. And connecting every incoming wire low impedance to earth - either directly (cable TV, satellite dish) or via a protector (AC electric, telephone). Because protection is only defined by what harmlessly absorbs hundreds of thousands of joules - single point earth ground.