Lightning + Computer = Bad
 

So we had a hell of a thunderstorm last night, with one bolt landing very close to my house. Our computer promptly shut off and we decided to leave it that way overnight. This morning when trying to turn it on it behaved very strangely. At first it simply wouldn't turn on, but after awhile we got the fans to spin and the powersupply to power up, only for it to flicker for a couple of minutes as it turns off. The power sometimes stays on for a full minute, with no beeps, no bootup. Sometimes it won't start at all, sometimes it turns on only for a second with no real discernable pattern.

We tried pretty much everything we could to see what was wrong with the machine. All the RAM was removed, nothing changed. The bios was reset, the motherboard battery taken out and put back in with no changes. The CPU was removed and the same thing happened. We used the power supply to successfuly turn on another machine, and another machine's power supply failed to turn on ours. None of our other computers have socket 462 AMD motherboards, so a CPU swap isn't going to work.

Basically what the fuck.

Have you tired plugging the system into a different outlet which is on a different circuit in the house? It sounds like you might have a short in your electrical wiring from the thunderstorm.

The other computer used to test was plugged in from the same cord. I'll try it somewhere else though.

Once our house got the same thing. My computer worked fine, but the computer of my parents basicly got fried because of it. Pretty much all of the components died. Seems like you have an experience close to that.

It sounds like you've got it narrowed down to the CPU, the motherboard, and the RAM. Why not order replacements for the three of them or do one at a time until you've fixed the problem?

Socket A motherboards are nearly irreplaceable because they're so old, and even if I found a site selling them, I'd be shelling out 50-100$ on a motherboard that's quite old. We're probably going to end up buying a Socket 939 motherboard with an Athlon X-2, but that runs close to 400$ and money is a definate concern.

Is there any concievable reason why I should buy an Intel MB/CPU over AMD for a desktop computer when money is a huge factor?

Yes. Buying a Pentium D 805 or 820 is considerably cheaper, and both perform pretty well. They are *not* comparable to the speed of an X2, but they give you a great bang for your buck. So it all depends on if you need the performance that the AMD gives, or if you want to save a few bucks and get an Intel.

I've looked around pretty thoroughly, but basically every review says that while the D 820 isn't a bad CPU and is fairly inexpensive, the AMD is better even when considering the price, so I'll probably either go with a cheaper 939 chipset CPU or the 3800 X2.

I have the X2 3800+ and it is quite amazing. Just trying to give some alternatives. It all depends on your pricepoint, but if you can stretch it up to the X2, then it's well worth it.