lightning damage

[tumbo207]

Hey, everyone! Last week my house was struck by lightning, my tivo S2 w/lifetime took a surge. No lights on the front, no power to the fan, no noise from the HDD. So i've replaced the PS. Now i get noises from the HDD, but still no lights on the front, and no power to the fan. Is my motherboard fried? Is there anything i can do about it? Thanks

[stevel]

Replace the S2. You should call TiVo and ask for the process of having your lifetime status transferred.

[ThAbtO]

If you had a UPS, it would be like an insurance protection for your electronics.
I'd advise getting one when you get the tivo replaced.

[WayneCarter]

If you had a UPS, it would be like an insurance protection for your electronics.
I'd advise getting one when you get the tivo replaced. ... or at least a good surge protector.

[OLdDog]

If you had a UPS, it would be like an insurance protection for your electronics.
I'd advise getting one when you get the tivo replaced.I've heard many people use this analogy equating insurance to a ups but the analogy fails in that a ups protects before the fact while insurance only has an effect after the fact.

The better comparison would be that a ups for some your electronics is like using a seat belt in your car. You hope you never have need for it; it only protects a limited, but important, subset of whats involved, and it only fulfills its primary function in catastrophic event.

Of course this does not negate the need for a ups, in fact it strongly reinforces the need.

[tumbo207]

Thanks everyone. That was my diagnosis. I'll hold on to the S2 until i have the funds for an HD, and transfer the LS. It was on a good surge protector, i guess i'll have to invest in a UPS.

[aaronwt]

A UPS should be a requirement for a TiVo or any DVR.

[jlb]

... or at least a good surge protector.

Often, in many parts of the country, surges are not the problem, but those transient rolling brown-out like events. Those can cause damage more readily sometimes, and they often are much more frequent. Surge units may not be enought to handle that.

A UPS should be a requirement for a TiVo or any DVR.

Or PC. And don't worry about how much battery life. You mostly want it to handle the events. I usually get just the 350 units.

[tiassa]

Or do both. Get one of the Surge protectors that plugs into the wall and plug the UPS into that.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=124931

[stevel]

No need to use both - every UPS I have seen includes surge protection. I'll comment, though, that surge protectors may not help with a lightning strike close to your house.

[lastdeadcat]

I agree with stevel, there's not much defense against a well-placed lightning bolt. They can jump for what seems like miles across the sky or from a cloud to the ground. That's fantastic amounts of voltage. You think a little surge protector or UPS can't stand up that kind of power surge. It might also come in through the cable or antenna. Or even, heaven forbid, a direct lightning strike on your box.

[ggieseke]

Too true that you can't protect against everything, but it sure can't hurt to try. Two years ago a lightning bolt blasted right through my roof and took out almost every piece of electronics in the house (and burned down part of it). My computer and TiVos all survived - they were on UPS systems.

[lafos]

Thanks everyone. That was my diagnosis. I'll hold on to the S2 until i have the funds for an HD, and transfer the LS. It was on a good surge protector, i guess i'll have to invest in a UPS.

If you want an HD, then you should consider buying it and getting the $299 MSD discount for lifetime on it. You can get this within 180 days of the S2 contacting the servers.

If you want to transfer the existing lifetime, you have to take what TiVo wants to give you for an exchange (typically a comparable model to the broken one). Further, if your S2 is >36 months old, TiVo will likely charge you $149 to replace the box and $199 to transfer the lifetime.

I suggest you call TiVo soon to see what options they are willing to give you.

[tiassa]

No need to use both - every UPS I have seen includes surge protection. I'll comment, though, that surge protectors may not help with a lightning strike close to your house.

I'm not saying that UPSs don't include surge protection. I'm saying that in the case of a lightning strike it is possible that the "Wall mount" surge protector will take enough of the sruge (and perhaps fty itself in the process) that a UPS would be able to deal with the rest of it.

This also isn't a general recommendation, I kind of "fell into" this set up in my home office because I needed some extra outlets, so use the Wall mount surge protector as a "Cube tap" and I have several things plugged into it including a UPS for the server desk and a power strip that I use when I'm building/repairing computers.

It comes down to how much effort/money you want to spend and what it is worth to protect your equipment

[newskilz]

I've heard many people use this analogy equating insurance to a ups but the analogy fails in that a ups protects before the fact while insurance only has an effect after the fact.

The better comparison would be that a ups for some your electronics is like using a seat belt in your car. You hope you never have need for it; it only protects a limited, but important, subset of whats involved, and it only fulfills its primary function in catastrophic event.

Of course this does not negate the need for a ups, in fact it strongly reinforces the need.

I can see your point, however you fail to mention a lot of UPS and surge protection equipment carry a connected equipment guarantee against loss, say $25,000 or more. So in a way you are buying insurance as well as generally increasing longevity of your connected electronic equipment. you just have to make sure every different thing that is plugged into your equipment goes through surge protection at a minimum. Just my two cents as it's always been better to use UPS/surge protection against not using it. The saying of the "insurance" probably goes to the fact that you are paying for something that should protect your assets, which insurance in general does, though like you said usually only replaces it when there is a loss.

Hope the OP gets something worked out and never did mention that I could tell whether he was using surge protection or not. If so, look into whether it carried a connected equipment guarantee: or at least go buy some now :)

[BobCamp1]

UPS/ surge protector is pretty useless against a lightning strike. 100 megavolts.

UPSs come with insurance, check as most do NOT cover lightning damage or "Acts of God".

You homeowner's policy usually covers lightning damage -- you'll have to decide if enough of your devices were fried as to whether to file a claim.