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July 13th, 2018 21:00

Keyboard failure after startup (thunderstorm)

Bad thunderstorms last night. Heard a very sharp crackling sound outside the front of our home. My computer that I was working on at the time went down. Turns out cable modem got fried, as did the power supply for my computer. No circuit breakers tripped. Lights did dim a little. Everything else seems fine. We had all computer, printer, cable modem, etc parts on surge protectors or ups+surge protectors. BUT, turns out, my honey did not plug the phone line into the surge protector. He connected it directly to the cable modem. He said something about it degrading the signal if it went through the ups. :Hmm:  So maybe that's where something leaked through.

Long story short, I diagnosed the power supply was bad by using a multimeter and finding that all but two pins (green and purple wires) were no longer giving power. Got a new one this morning and installed it. Not exactly sure what happened after this, but when I turned everything on, my motherboard's amber led light was flashing slowly, like with the bad power supply. Nothing powered up (no fans, beeps, etc). Tried couple times. Then while I was sitting there, reading tech support sites on my cellphone, the cpu and case fans turned on for a second and then turned off. I kept trying the power button, and eventually my computer started trying to boot up, but would shut itself down. Kept trying and eventually the computer booted up and got all the way to windows logon. I was so excited until I realized the keyboard wasn't working. Rebooted, saw the lone "keyboard failure" during bootup (before the Dell logo? Or was it right after?).  Ugh, what a letdown.

Other details: have only wired keyboard and mouse plugged into any external ports (tried various usb ports on front, back, and top). Hard drive is plugged in, but CD drive is not. Keyboard works on other computer. Keyboard lights never turn on on this broken computer (XPS). Found on this website that people recommend taking out the cmos battery and clearing CMOS with the RTCRST jumper. Tried that. My computer used to go into Dell Diagnostics (I guess since I hard booted after it got to windows logon) on bootup, but now it just stops earlier with the "keyboard failure" message followed by BIOS being reset, etc., press F1...


So, any other ideas? Is my motherboard messed up? Is it safe to assume my hard drive and graphics card are still good? Good grief, I haven't been checked my NAS to see if my backups are safe. And of course I have customers waiting for me to fix my computer so I can finish their work.

4 Operator

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20.1K Posts

July 15th, 2018 09:00

Lightning does strange things to electronics. Telephone lines are a major conduit for lightning. That was a big mistake--as you now know. Try removing every removable card and all attached equipment and cables except video since you saw it work a bit, Reboot and listen and watch to any signs of booting. Then add one card at a time booting after each success. One fried card can prevent booting. My guess--the network adapter is fried.

Don't forget that your homeowner insurance might cover your electronics. Look around the house to see for other damage that is not obvious yet--burned outlets--test every one of them, burned electric cords, appliances that were plugged in, odd smells, your roof and trees, etc. The insurance deductible might be covered by other problems so don't be too quick to report it.

I've had lots of experience with this so I have a bunch of UPS units. Best of luck!

8 Wizard

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17K Posts

July 15th, 2018 13:00


@wholestory wrote:

Bad thunderstorms last night.

I diagnosed the power supply was bad ...Got a new one this morning and installed it.

Fixing lightning-damaged computers is hard, even for qualified/trained computer technicians. I've seen lightning blow holes in boards and chips over the years.

See this.

https://dell.com/community/Alienware-General/Alienware-Desktop-General-Hardware-Troubleshooting/m-p/5555517#M57436

Pay particular attention to:
- Proper way to test PC Power-Supply (SMPS) is with a Digital Power Supply Tester.
- Remove components so that config is as minimal as possible. Find something that works, and go from there.

Your first hurdle is a PASS in ePSA-Diags (outside of Windows). That means hardware is at least 90% good.

 

8 Wizard

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17K Posts

July 15th, 2018 13:00


@wholestory wrote:

1. Bad thunderstorms last night.

2. Turns out cable modem got fried, 

my honey did not plug the phone line into the surge protector. He connected it directly to the cable modem. He said something about it degrading the signal if it went through the ups. 

So maybe that's where something leaked through.

 


1. Sounds like the coax for your Cable-Service PoE (Point of Entry ... into the residence) is not properly earth grounded. It gets it's own earth-rod/spike if too far away from main 120v/240v power-panel into residence. It's the same as this.

How To Properly Ground A TV Antenna - AntennaJunkies.com
https://goo.gl/images/f5jLjc        or 

http://avsforum.com/forum/35-cable-digital-cable-non-hdtv/1568650-lightning-strike-what-now.html

2. If it also provides Digital-Phone, sounds like a Residential Gateway, not a plain Cable-Modem.

3. As opposed to old analog POTS phone line ... where your phones are basically hard-wired to the phone-switch down the street ...

... a digital-phone system is different. It's wiring is isolated to your residence. The old RJ-11 wiring is only kept for compatibility with POTS phones. It begins at your Residential-Gateway (or MTA phone-modem) and ends at each wired-phone or phone-base (usually a cordless phone system). 

It is usually sufficient to have (AC-Power for) all modems and gateways on a good UPS along with any wired phones (like the cordless phone-system base station). And of course, include any routers, ethernet-switches, NAS, printers, etc. 

Basically, anything computerized or on the wired-network should be plugged into a good UPS (like APC-LCD-1000/1300/1500 with AVR) . I also put them on my Home Theater setups, HDTVs, etc.

10 Elder

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43.6K Posts

July 15th, 2018 19:00

Maybe I missed it, but did you try connecting the keyboard to a different rear USB2 port?

And if you have or can borrow one, try connecting an externally powered USB hub. Connect the hub's power brick to a wall outlet and plug the hub into a rear USB2 port. Connect mouse and keyboard into the hub and then boot the PC with fingers x'd...

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