Neighbor's house hit by lightning... MY Apple is acting up!

[diehldun]

This is going to sound really random, but my neighbor's house was recently hit by lightning (our palm tree caught fire ), and the lightning/thunder was REALLY REALLY loud. Anyways, ever since, my Powerbook has been acting up a lot. Safari takes FOR EVER to load. It took me about a minute to get to macrumors, and refused to even open AOL. AIM is an absolute nightmare. Now, the other Dells on this network opened all of these websites quickly, except for mine, so I know it's not a RoadRunner problem.

Does lightning have anything to do with a computer's performance? I'm wondering if it affected the airport? I forgot to unplug the pb during the storm...

I'm thinking about heading over to the Genius Bar this weekend if there's nothing I can do... thanks for any help!

 

[mad jew]

I forgot to unplug the pb during the storm...

It really could have fried all sorts of components. I'd get it checked out by the Genius. Maybe run the Hardware Test disks just to see if it can narrow things down though.

And please unplug during storms in future.

 

[zakatov]

****, a lightning hit a neighbor's palm tree, and I had any ethernet jack with a cable longer than a few feet plugged into them fried. Be afraid, be very afraid.

 

[After G]

Try using alternative methods of internet access (ethernet) instead of your airport. Then you can tell if it's the Airport or not.

It might be your router, since your Mac was unwired. Try changing out routers and see.

 

[Makosuke]

As said, there's a good chance one or more things are fried. If you're lucky, it's just your airport and that's why your net connection is slow or perhaps just some corrupt data on the hard drive... but if you're unlucky anything could be toast.

It's like this: If it's plugged into the wall, a nearby lightening strike can and (if close enough) almost certainly will fry ANYTHING. My mom once saw sparks come out of a phone from a strike probably a mile away--those wires are designed to carry electricity, after all.

But even if nothing is plugged in, a lightening strike generates a MASSIVE electromagnetic field nearby due to the absurd amount of electricity flowing. This can, among other things, screw up or erase any magnetic storage (such as hard drives) and generate electrical current in wires or loops of wire, of which there are many within your computer. If the strike was close enough, it could well have damaged any number of sensitive parts.

Run that hardware check, try a different net connection, and if that doesn't pinpoint the problem try reinstalling the OS from scratch. And keep your fingers crossed.

 

[Koodauw]

****, a lightning hit a neighbor's palm tree, and I had any ethernet jack with a cable longer than a few feet plugged into them fried. Be afraid, be very afraid.

You had your ethernet and cable modem plugged into a palm tree?

 

[mad jew]

You had your ethernet and cable modem plugged into a palm tree?

Awesome wireless reception.

 

[diehldun]

Well I hooked up my pb to the airport, and it is still RRREEEAAALLY slow... I guess I'll have to stop by the Apple Store tomorrow then.


Did the lightning do something to my Airport (in the computer)? The airport itself is fine, and so is the wireless to other computers. But I had surge protection...

is there any chance that AppleCare covers this?

 

[Artful Dodger]

diehldun Well I hooked up my pb to the airport, and it is still RRREEEAAALLY slow... I guess I'll have to stop by the Apple Store tomorrow then.


Did the lightning do something to my Airport (in the computer)? The airport itself is fine, and so is the wireless to other computers. But I had surge protection...

is there any chance that AppleCare covers this?

They may gather around and shout for the ring of fire Okay sorry (lol) If I were you I'm not sure I'd bring up the "stormy" issue but I'd be reading up on the Apple care as to what it won't cover i.e. act of god (bad weather) and what not. Good luck