Lightning and phones/lines

JB · Mar 13, 2004

Couple weeks ago, during a T'storm, my modem (dial up) got killed. I assume it was a lightning blip on the line. All 3 phones in the house seem unaffected. Took it to my Conehead, who replaced the modem and checked out the 'puter. Cool? Not. Got home, hooked 'er up, did a surf and signed off. A few seconds after sign off the 'puter locked up. Rebooted. Tried many times. Everything was cool (as cool as dial up gets, anyway) until sign off. Then lock up.

Took 'er back to Conehead. He beat her up for a couple hours. No problem.

Took 'er home, bypassed the new phone line surge suppressor (no help), disconnected each of three wireless phones, one at a time. No help.

Have not disconnected the DirectTV receiver yet, but it is working fine, too. What do I do now???

roscoe · Mar 13, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

JB, just to clarify, conehead? can dialup, and disconnect, while the computer is at his location? I would try connecting the computer to the phone line network interface bax where it enters your house, just to determine if you have an outside problem, or an inside house problem. It should be a simple phone plug connection if you have one like mine. The only modems I have experienced this with, were defective, a "hang on disconnect" problem. But that doesn't explain how the tech can make it work for him.

ezbtr · Mar 13, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

So have you tried with a long phone cable, or old analog phone ? to verify dialtone on each jack? I use voice line surge suppressors at work sites as we have had so MANY modems fried! Check to see if all pins in jacks are connected? I've seen lightning mess up lots of jacks themselves, Let us know, Heinz

mellowyellow · Mar 13, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

suspect driver problem for new modem JB. if jack was bad, it would not work at all. seems to work fine, but locks up system when you try to dis- connect right? s/w not h/w problem i think. freebie re-service by conehead. maybe a diff. modem even with different drivers? good luck, M.Y. ps. was system on/running during t-storm?

ezbtr · Mar 13, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

yeah but if tech replaced modem in shop and worked, all should be fine. If system on whilt tstorm, perhaps reload OS? I've had to do this on controllers and routers as the surge just really messes with the logic and reloads ahve fixed prob. Heinz

JB · Mar 13, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Thanks for the input, Gents.

For now, I do not believe that the problem is in my 'puter because I watched it work flawlessly on Conehead's line for 2 hours. I like the suggestion that I plug the 'puter directly into the phone line feed jack, bypassing everything in the house. Gonna have to wait for the rain to stop and take 'puter and monitor and keyboard outdoors to do it though. I will report findings.

jsfinn · Mar 13, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

JB, Who is your dialup provider? Do you dial up using their software or do you use just plain old Windows Dialup service? If you use the ISPs software, I'd try uninstalling it and reinstalling it. My guess is that it's when you tell it to disconnect it sends commands to the modem to tell it to reset that probably worked for the old modem but not the new modem. Just a guess ... sounds like a strange problem to me - it can't be the phone line if it let you dial and work though. It's got to be a computer problem if it locks up after you disconnect.

SlowlySinking · Mar 14, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

JB, lots of good suggestions, here's another, even though your DirecTV is working fine I would disconnect it's phone line, that modem may have got zapped too, sounds easier than moving your computer outdoors to the telco line input,

jimchere · Mar 15, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Even a telephone that seems to work fine and is hooked up can be overloading the line from some surge damage that is not apparent until a sensitive device such as a modem is connected. You'll need to disconnect all items from your phone lines in the house, plug in the 'puter and dial in, then reconnect items one at a time until you find the faulty component. If that doesn't work, you may have damage in the junction box outside your house or even down the street. On another note (story): At my grandmothers in TX near Marble Falls, we had a gas water heater in the kitchen. The phone line got struck by lightning, the lightning blew the kitchen telephone off the wall, arced across the kitchen, grounded through the gas line on the water heater, breached the gas line and turned it into a torch! Had to turn off the gas (propane) in a hurry. If your in an older house make sure your grounded for lightning! Then I promptly went and changed my skivvies

LadyFish · Mar 15, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

JB, are your phone lines fiber optic? Before our area had fiber optics installed, we'd blow out modems all the time. The surges and lags in power were horrible not to mention the constant outages. According to our power provider there was also electricity leaking into the phone lines making it nearly impossible to get a clean, clear connection.

JB · Mar 18, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Nope, LF. Plain old copper. UPDATE: I ran a looooong line out to the inlet box and hooked my MODEM direct to it. No problem. I have 4 jacks in the house. Do I need to change them all or just the one my MODEM plugs into?

mellowyellow · Mar 18, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

only the ones you will need 4 the puter jb. might want to check w/phone co. and see if u r paying for inside line maint. lotsa folks have the coverage and don't know it. they would fix for free in this case.

roscoe · Mar 18, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Try plugging your long line into the different jacks in the house. It may be that the interference is coming from a splice or junction that is feeding the whole house.

wajajaja · Mar 18, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Try cleanning the heat coils, they are the lighning protection at the terminal block, they are generally under a screw cap, they are spring loaded ceramic with a carbon center, they have a very small air gap that a lightning bolt would jump to ground if you were hit. and the carbon would leave a trace grounding the line, you may hear a hum. another device is a heat coil, it is a pin with a coil of wire around it, when lightning hits or a cross with power lines it heats the solder and puts the plunger to ground. these tbl would be dianosed by the repair clerk durring the initial telephone call to repair. at my house i had a old extention that would siphon moiture on a wet day and ground out the phone lines, cut it away all came clear.

wajajaja · Mar 18, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

more ideas, data is much more critical than voice, especially analog data, the top box from direct tv does it thing when the phone is idle. and you mention that the puter fails to log off or shut down correctly, but only at home, would of susspect a lost file. if shut down lock up, try reinstalling windows.

Scoop · Mar 18, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

I think Waja.. is on the right track. Had the same problem in my parents house. When they came in and looked at the blocks, there was a big burn spot on the carbon blocks. When lightnng hit near the house it melted the wires off some of the plugs in the basement.

JB · Mar 28, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Well, two days of trying this, trying that.

My puter is now plugged directly into the outside lead-in, with 50' of new cord. I am still getting disconnects (could be the @#$%^& server) and 30-50% lock ups upon logging off. I now have to reboot and/or log on six or eight times to get through the Board.

I am going to sign off, get out a bottle of single malt and come back in the morning to see what you guys and gals suggest I do next.

rwise · Mar 30, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

JB Is there any audible noise on the line? Voices in the back ground, scratching clicking etc. (tele co problem) There are also noises that you can not hear that effect your modem. The tele co should be able to run a test on your line for noise. Do you know where the lightning hit the line? What modem do you have? Details, is it a “winmodem”, does it have on board processing or does it rely on you processor to do the work? It still could be the modem. IMHO I do not like or use modems that rely on your cpu to do the work. If it's a cheap modem, under about $100 ball park I would replace it, again. Lightning does what lihghtning wants to do. I'll be back at 11 Richard

JB · Mar 31, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

Hi, Richard. Thanks for your input. I have reinstalled Windows 98 and aol 6.0. I tried for about 6 hours to upgrade to aol 9.0 until I discovered that aol 9.0 requires 128MB of RAM. I only have 120MB. Rats! Did scandisk on all 9.something GB of hard drive and Nortonized the whole works (neither discovered any problem). It seems I had several problems, and still have a couple. Currently I am operating with every phone in the house unplugged. I am still getting occasional disconnects but haven't locked up the 'puter in several hours. I will replace the rest of the phone jacks (the one my MODEM is in is new) and chastise my ISP about slooooowness and disconnects. Since today is the last of the month I may just switch ISPs. I am satisfied that my MODEM is okay because Conehead ran it for several hours on his phone line (used both of my ISPs) and got zero problems. Will report results as I get these things done.

rwise · Mar 31, 2004

Re: Lightning and phones/lines

JB A fresh load can help a lot of things, I'll keep an eye one this thread. What type of RAM would you need to get to 128+ meg? I just might have stick laying about that I could drop in the mail. Richard

Lightning and phones/lines

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