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View Full Version : A flash, then a pop. Now my PowerMac might have a problem...


Tanner31593
07-02-2008, 08:51 PM
This is a true story. It's grammatically horrendous, BUT I'M IN A PANIC HERE. lol. And i'm having a TAB key problem, so no indenting foryou.



It was a stormy evening. July 2nd, 2008. Guesstimation it was a little after 5PM.

It had been storming earlier, but it had seemingly stopped. I was cleaning my room, vaccuming. To be more specific, I was putting my pillows in the bag, then sticking the vacuum hose in the bag and sucking out all the air.

I fired up AOL Connect on my trusty ol' PowerMac G4. Then, while waiting for it to connect, I turned my back. Nobody was watching. I had done this many times before, but this time was different. Without a doubt, this time was different. White earbuds and all, I was dancing around to Barry Manilo's COPACABANA, oblivious to the fact that there was a jaw-dropping display of lightning out the window behind me. In the middle of the song's chorus, I heard a loud POP coming from the general area of my PowerMac. Loud noises are no stranger, usually there is no danger, but this was different. I turned around in a heartbeat, startled, and looked at the monitor. Everything seemed normal. AOL Connect was dialing. I moved my mouse, nothing. Frozen. In a panic, I turn my Mac off. I then unplug it immediately.

Then thunder crashed, and that's when I knew. In the midst of connecting, lightning had struck. That's when I remembered that I had procrastinated replacing 2 bad surge protectors, one belonging to me, and the other to my mom. It's not that I had forgotten to replace them, every time we went into the store I remembered that they needed to be replaced, but somehow they never made it home. I go upstairs and ask my family if they heard anything. Although my mother was in the shower, my dad and brothers informed me they heard a loud pop as well. I walk over to my mom's computer, and I sit in the chair. Her PCwas off, and everything seemed normal. The suspense builds as I reach for the power button...........nothing.
Zip.
Zilch.
No noise, no beep, no NOTHING.

The surge protector under her desk looked fine, on and blinking like it always is. Knowing that the modem part of the surge protector had previously failed, I check the phone. No dial tone. My routine thunderstorm phone line routine was complete.

At this point, I don't really know what to do. I go back downstairs and turn on my PowerMac. Everything seems fine. I unplug every phone and computer in the house, then I plug one phone back in. I hear a dial tone, so I plug every phone and computer in one at a time until I confirm my suspicions. The problem indeed were the 2 unprotected computers. I had been using a DSL filter as a splitter (Hey, it works...), and that was the problem preventing the phone lines from working.

I open AOL Connect. Everything seems fine up until the "Connecting" bit. No dial tone. I unplug the phone cord from my Mac and plug it into an old phone sitting around, and i'm taken aback when I hear a dial tone. Phone=dial tone. Mac=No dial tone.
Well, that seems easy. Replace the modem, right?

I had one of those green squares kicking around that I was sure would solve all my problems. I put it in my Frank. Power it up and all that, and I open AOL Connect. Still nothing. Looking at "About This Mac" everything seems fine, but all is not fine.

All is not fine indeed.

(Fade to black)


I don't need an oscar, i would just love your tech support, and maybe some suggestions for who should play me in the movie. :lol:

I'm assuming the modem I put in was good, but I replaced only the modem itself, not it's cable or the jack thing. (Hey, I don't know what it's called...)

When I first got the DA last August, the seller I bought it from had the modem jack misaligned, so I just saw silver metal instead of the actual jack, so I went out and bought one just to find that there actually WAS one, they just put it in wrong so you couldn't see it.
I was looking for it earlier but I can't find it anymore.

What could be upsetting my dear Frankie? (sobs)
Hope my stupidity didn't end his long but promising life.
:crying: :crying: :crying:


If I did damage his brains permanently, well....looks like i'll have to find a Frank II. (SOBBING CONTINUES)

Mk i'm done being dramatic, so the violins can stop.

Look on the bright side, at least there's a TECH QUESTION to be answered here now!

Now I need to head on over to a PC forum to get help with my mom's computer, although that's going to be way more difficult.



Thanks, you guys and gals are the best!

Tanner.

Tanner31593
07-02-2008, 08:53 PM
That sob story took me exactly one hour to write LOL.

technologist
07-03-2008, 12:43 PM
Ugh. Nothing can ruin your week like a bolt from above.

I had lightning take out a Mac once. It came in through the phone line, blasted apart the DSL line filter, killed the DSL modem, came down the ethernet cable, killed the router, and then shot from there into another ethernet cable to finally kill an almost-new iMac.

There was no surge suppressor on the phone line, because it seemed to interfere with the DSL signal.

That was an expensive day.

Tanner31593
07-03-2008, 02:03 PM
Ouch!
That's too bad technologist.

We've had computers hit before, never a Mac though.
When I had my PC I really didn't even care to have a surge protector. There are enough spare parts in my basement. It usually only takes out the modem and/or power supply.

I don't know what I should do about my mom's.
Her PC is relatively new (2004), and all the spare parts I have are from about 1998...i'll have to see if I have an extra power supply and just do some trial and error I guess.

Maybe i'll just tell her it's toasted and to buy a Mac.
That actually might work lol.
Her gateway has been good, but she's had a lot of software problems.
I think one of the selling points would be that if she has ANY problems she just brings the little thing in to woodland. She couldn't do that with her PC since shortly afterwards gateway sort of closed all of their stores and best buy is NOT very friendly.

I'll be sure to get a surge protector for my phone line as soon as my PowerMac is up and running.

Sherman Homan
07-03-2008, 02:10 PM
I hope you have learned to never, ever, ever listen to Copacabana ever again.
:w00t:

Tanner31593
07-03-2008, 02:16 PM
I hope you have learned to never, ever, ever listen to Copacabana ever again.
:w00t:
LOL.
I love that song!
Our school did "LHS PRESENTS: THE MAKING OF COPACABANA" for our annual musical.
It was the most amazing musical to date.
The songs are still stuck in my head and this was the first few days of May.

Sherman Homan
07-03-2008, 03:26 PM
So your Mac is running fine, with the exception of the modem?
I think I still have a batch of G4 modems that I would gladly donate to the cause. They are only going to get thrown out next time I clean out 'the box'.

Tanner31593
07-03-2008, 04:05 PM
So your Mac is running fine, with the exception of the modem?
I think I still have a batch of G4 modems that I would gladly donate to the cause. They are only going to get thrown out next time I clean out 'the box'.
Well, I replaced the modem and it's still not working.
I probably should test to see if it's for sure a working modem, but I think it is. I haven't replaced the jack part of it though. Could that be bad?

JohnTheMacGeek
07-03-2008, 04:34 PM
I hope you have learned to never, ever, ever listen to Copacabana ever again.
:w00t:This story inspired me to load it onto my iPod! Here I go...

Her name was Lola,
She was a showgirl...

Sherman Homan
07-03-2008, 04:58 PM
You're gunna get struck by lightening next!

iRye
07-03-2008, 08:04 PM
I'm so sorry to hear about that. Really sucks! I'm guilty of not using UPSes, they seem so expensive although they can save thousands of dollars. :(

Tanner31593
07-04-2008, 07:40 AM
You're gunna get struck by lightening next!
You'll be the one to get struck by lightning!
Lightning will strike you!
Lightning shuns the non-believer!
SHUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!
:lol:

iRye
07-04-2008, 08:56 AM
I think the Jack may in fact be fried. You could try an Apple USB Modem, but those are a little pricey.

BlueBell
07-04-2008, 10:57 AM
Though that may be the best solution.

Tanner31593
07-04-2008, 02:06 PM
i guess i'll just go foR it and eBay a new jack. ideally i would be able to find the extra jack i had, but it was only like $6

Tanner31593
07-04-2008, 11:46 PM
OKAY!

So, I took the jack out, and I was thinking "Wow, that particular green polygon of technology looks AWFULLY familiar, I think i've seen that on something else..."

So I got to digging and it's the same thing as on my Clamshell, which coincidentally ALSO is having a problem not connecting to the internet. Turns out that jack works, and now

FRANK
IS
FINE! LOL.

It also turns out that my jack was toast, as was the modem, AND the modem I replaced it with. So I replaced it again. lol.


ALL IS GREAT AGAIN.

BUT.....


When I started up my mac after I had shut it down after replacing the jack (I was hooking up my new surge protector) I got the gray apple screen, but I couldn't see the apple because

THERE
WAS
A
GAPING
BLACK
RECTANGULAR
BOX
IN
THE
MIDDLE
OF
MY
SCREEN!

I turned off the monitor, then turned it back on and it was STILL THERE.

-Hyperventilating
-Meltdown Having
-Freaking Out

Then restart.

Did it again.

Repeat freaking process.

Unplug it.
Unplug all peripherals.
Turn it on.
Works.

Plug all peripherals back in.
It works.

??????


IT SCARED ME.

While hooking up the surge protector I got all my cords in a huge bunch (ANNOYING) but i'm too tired to deal with it.

Then I remembered that the speaker volume controller was still down there.
I found it and pulled on the wire to yank it back up to my desk.
Now only one speaker works.

Whoops. lol.

Oh well, they were a wal-mart special...but they were still good.

Creative, man.


Can anyone explain the box issue?

Rxx
07-05-2008, 12:46 AM
I have never heard of a black box in the screen. Just ones with "?" marks.