System Damaged by Lightening

If the computer was hit by lightening, the damage can be minor or it can be major. When a system has been hit by lightening, some people will try to repair the system. Sometimes they get lucky and only have to replace one part. Other times, they spend more money repairing the system than it would have to buy a new system.

Key points to be aware of

Most if not all computer repair shops do not have equipment to check devices to see if they have a short on them. If the modem has a short in it, it can damage other parts of the system.
Since they don't have the equipment to check the individual part (such as motherboard) to see if it is bad, they then have to either try another part to see if that fixes the issue or use educated guess depending on what the troubleshooting points to. Sometimes you can narrow the issue down to two or three parts but can't narrow it down to only one part.
For no power situations, the tech may not be able to narrow down farther than the motherboard, processor or power supply. You may have more than one part that went bad. The motherboard and power supply may be bad. The motherboard and processor may be bad. Without other parts to try, it is hard to determine which one is bad.
A part may be working now but fail later. The lightening strike may have weakened a part but didn't break it. It may work for a day, week, month, year or forever. There is no way to know if a part was weakened or not.
Sometimes you can put more money in replacing the parts than it would to buy a new computer.

Here is a couple of scenarios to try to explain the above.

Scenario One

Scenario Two

System was hit by lightening and get no power. During troubleshooting, was able to narrow down the issue to either the power supply, motherboard, processor, or a mixture of the three. You take a shot in the dark and buy a power supply. The power supply doesn't fix the issue so you replace the motherboard and now it is up and running after replacing both the power supply and motherboard.

Scenario Three

System was hit by lightening and get no power. During troubleshooting, was able to narrow down the issue to either the power supply, motherboard, processor, or a mixture of the three. You take a shot in the dark and buy a power supply. The power supply fixes the issue and your up and running. You start putting the rest of the system together. The internal modem has no sign of damage. Since you have no way of determining if it was damaged or not, you put the modem back in the system. Now the system will not come on again. You remove the modem and the system still will not come on. You determine the motherboard is damaged now. The modem had a short in it and it took the motherboard out. You replace the motherboard and the modem. Now it is time to put the sound card, video card, or other device. Again you have no way of knowing if it is good or not without putting it in the system. If it is bad, it can take something else out with it.

Scenario Four

Most insurance companies cover lightening strikes and may cover your system. Its up to you to decide if you want to take a chance on replacing parts but you may be spending more money than it is worth. Your insurance company may replace the system.