iMac vs lightning

[BernDog]

We had a lightning strike a tree just feet outside our house last night. Among the casualties was my iMac. It was just plain dead. I started an insurance claim on all items that seemed to be dead. I didn't wait until my troubleshooting was fully complete. I can always go back and take things off my claim. I've already called back to remove two external hard drives I finally got another computer to recognize (they're fine), and I may be adding an airport express once our internet is back up (cable guy coming tomorrow) so I can completely troubleshoot it. This evening, I've been digging in on the iMac. I was ready to pull the drive (that hopefully survived) and I gave it one last chance. It booted like what appeared to be normal to my login screen, except neither USB (keyboard and mouse) nor Bluetooth (Apple trackpad) seem to work. I'm inclined to think that parts of the logic board may have been fried. When I moved the computer upstairs to work on it it must have reset the SMC. But, still no way to control it.

I can't imagine insurance would want to mess around doing a logic board in an early 2008 iMac. They seem to be taking my word on everything. Apparently I'm eventually to send all my gear somewhere, but I can't imagine it's in their best interest to mess with an 8 year old iMac unless they explicitly suspected fraud or my number came up randomly.

So, two questions. First, is there anything else I should try to get things working? Keep in mind, it won't recognize mice or keyboards. Second, if the USB is fried in an 8 year old computer (my policy provides full replacement), are they and I going to be in agreement that it's dead enough to give it last rites?

[Speedy]

Sorry to hear about your damages. I think your insurer will do right by you. I imagine you have checked everything that was plugged in.

I'm glad you have coverage on your electronics because for me to get coverage on mine would require a rider.

[space-time]

sorry to hear that.

was this plugged in into any form of UPS or Surge Protector?

is a UPS or Surge Protector even able to protect against a lightning strike like that?

[BernDog]

space-time wrote:
sorry to hear that.

was this plugged in into any form of UPS or Surge Protector?

is a UPS or Surge Protector even able to protect against a lightning strike like that?

Old house with ungrounded wiring, cheap power strip.

Almost everything in my living room was fried. Receiver, TV, router, cable modem, network drive. The only survivor on that circuit was the Xbox. iMac was in the office just below the living room downstairs. Everything else on that circuit was fine. I suspect the wired Ethernet connection to the router upstairs was what did the iMac in.

Nobody feel sorry for me. I'll likely be getting a new replacement for my 8yo iMac. My data's intact. AirPort Extreme was getting flaky, so that'll be an improvement. The only bad thing is they won't be able to replace my last of the breed ST Panasonic plasma. I'll be interested to see what they come back with on that. I don't even know if you can spend $1600 (I think that was msrp on mine) on a 50" tv without without getting a pretty nice 4K (which I don't care about for our viewing distance). Do they even make 50" 4K TVs?

[rz]

From personal experience, I can tell you that some items may appear to be ok now, but in the next couple of months may begin to fail.

[m.paris]

Can you control it with screen sharing?

[DP]

How about your house? And your ear drums?

[BernDog]

m.paris wrote:
Can you control it with screen sharing?

Internet and network were still down as of last night. Cable guy came today and ran a new line from the street. I'll get a temporary network set up when I get home and I'll see if it shows up. I hadn't bothered yet since I wasn't missing anything with the internet down. All of my troubleshooting has been a little hobbled up to this point.

[BernDog]

rz wrote:
From personal experience, I can tell you that some items may appear to be ok now, but in the next couple of months may begin to fail.

My exact thoughts as well. I don't think I'd accept any repairs even if they wanted to do that, and they probably know better than to try in cases like this anyway. Who knows what other gremlins might be lurking. If I thought of a computer like a car, it's had probably 90% depreciation, and it'd need a new engine (logic board). That'd be an easy total.

[BernDog]

DP wrote:
How about your house? And your ear drums?

Just fine, but it was right outside the kids' window. They were freaked out to say the least. A big chunk of the side of the tree blew out where there was some rot. Pretty cool. I wish I'd seen it happen.