Charred circuits

According to Rowden “most of the components inside of the machine were a mess.”

“The case might have been salvageable with some good cleaning,” Rowden told me, “but everything in there stunk terribly.” Miraculously, the machine’s hard drive was undamaged and Rowden was able to retrieve all the customer’s data.

Photo by Brad Rowden

Melted plastic

The expansion card above the modem shows significant damage.

Photo by Brad Rowden

Blistered circuit board

The modem’s circuit board fried to a crisp.

Photo by Brad Rowden

Burned modem

The modem clearly suffered the most damage.

Photo by Brad Rowden

Extent of the destruction

Nearly every component in the machine was destroyed.

Photo by Brad Rowden

Computer damaged by lighting

As noted earlier, at least the hard drive survived.

Photo by Brad Rowden

Disconnect your PC during lightning storms

The owner of this computer learned the hard way that power surges can travel through telephone lines. It’s always a good idea to unplug all your computer’s cables during a storm. Or at the very least have every wire connected to a high-quality surge protector.

Photo by Brad Rowden