My Computer got toasted while playing Civ3!

[T.A JONES]

It was a very hot day. I sat Happily admiring how my used 3.2 pentium 4 enjoyed such fast turn times on massive maps Civ3. Storm clouds had gathered while I sat comfy counting seperate stacks of doom consisting over 100+ units each and all based a continent away. At least 3 my offshores spys had spotted, all from differant nations! It was one mighty alliance with one goal: to elimate my biggest threat. The current points leader would soon be no more...What a great battle to catch on film!!

The tempature in the room was stifiling hot. On top, my computer was running like crazy gearin for massive conflict. Its fan blew hot air for the ceiling fan to circulate.
I was lookin forward to cool rain promised by the dark clouds above and sheer carnage with AI casualtys in record number following the huge battle brewing below. Suddenly Im jolted by a bright flash! then ficker, followed by a tremendous .. BOOMMM!!!! My computer had instantly been fried. Some strange odour I can only discribe as 'power scented' lingered in the air far longer then I could bare. It was my computers last breath...

So Ya, has this happened to anyone? At the time the fan was workin really hard. The rig was upgraded around it you see. Its the oldest part
When I took Civ3 past a few hundred turns on these sized maps It sounded like its ready to take off. The speed at which turns flew by astounded me, I even wrote here about it. So I just put on earphones and made due with the noise. It would never go on when I was on the net (btw Im on my crap 2/0 dell right now)

All the stuff hooked up to the same power bar works perfectly. SO IM askin DID CIv3 help to kill my computer? Cuz I was playin massive huge maps and making its usual growl when lighting hit but I had never played this huge when it was this hot out. Mybe it was just to much at one time ?

Another Q: How much does it cost to replace starter? is it like car where I have to order from manufacture or can any store be of service?

Thanks for any help or same story. I can't be first to lose a computer this way? Feel lil good talkin bout it. It was very tramatic expierence so if noone can help at least I got some relief sharing my ordeal with others

 

[Quintillus]

Wow, so that's why my parents always said, "Turn the computer off when there's a lightning storm." Never heard of anyone's computer being blown by it, though. Although our phone line was fried by a lightning strike last summer. Gave a rather unpleasant ringtone after that (and nothing worked till the phone workers came and fixed it). Kind of inconvenient, but of course much easier to fix...and since the phone line blow was outside the company fixed it for free.

I strongly suspect it was the lightning that fried it, not Civ. Did you have a surge protector? If not, it's all but guaranteed the computer got power-surged beyond its limits. If so, it's still possible, especially if the surge protector was not current. Might want to check your other appliances, too, in case something else got fried.

CivIII is probably innocent. Any process running 100% processor is the same strain. Did Civ always run this fast? Even if not, I highly doubt it was Civ that caused the change...maybe higher temperatures, IDK.

I did have a few fans die back around '96 on our old 100 MHz rig, but fortunately it never blew. As for Pentium 4's, I thought they were supposed to power off if they overheated...although lightning of course would send them way too hot way too quickly.

Just curious, what was the temperature? I was playing a week or so ago when it was 87 Farenheit (30.5 Celsius) in here, and although the computer and monitor were noticably warmer, there wasn't any damage. Most stuff is supposed to work till about 95 Farenheit (35 Celsius).

As to the "starter" - do you mean power supply unit (PSU)? Even if so, that might not be all that's damaged...lightning is a rather powerful thing and lots of stuff is connected to the PSU, and "power scented" smells aren't usually good signs. Might want to see what all works before just replacing the CPU...start with making sure the Civ disk is unharmed (of utmost importance!).

Good luck with all that. Quite an experience.

And there was one other time I had a rather closer than usual experience with lightning. Back when I was 11 or so I was taking swimming lessons, and was going to go to the State Fair one day after lessons. Well, storm clouds came over and the lessons got called early, so I got in the car with my family, dad driving as he took the day off to go to the Fair, and we started heading home along our usual tree-lined route. We'd turned onto it and not gone too far at all when, about 150 feet or so in front of us, there's a bang and then a HUGE flash as lightning hits a transformer on a power pole and the whole transformer blows. For a very short time we were driving towards a big purple fireball. That was quite a drive home...fortunately also something you don't see every day. Then when we got home our neighbor's tree had fallen over and was leaning against our house...yeah, that was quite a storm.

 

[Rheinmetall]

If you're lucky it only fries the PSU. If the voltage jumps through the PSU, then it can fry your whole computer. My neighbours computer blew up a few years ago. Only the drives made it intact.

I always shut and unplug my computer if there's a thunderstorm nearby. I don't want to risk losing over 1000€ worth of electronics, not to mention all the data I have stored within.

 

[Speedo]

A computer without a surge protector is for all intents a dead computer. Don't forget that phone and/or cable lines need protection as well.

 

[Shadylookin]

if you're lucky your cpu is just fried, but it's quite possible that it went through and fried everything. depending on the damage you could be looking at buying a new cpu for 100-200 or the damage could be so bad that you may as well buy a new computer

 

[3 EMS]

I unplug my PC, stereo and TV. Lightning can be pretty intense here in North Carolina. I'd hate to have to buy replacements.

It would be cool if you had another PSU available to try so you could see wether or not the whole computer fried. People regularly overclock their CPUs and memory then run games and software to benchmark and stability test their rigs. So I doubt that CIV III was too much a strain. As was mentioned earlier, your PC will slow down or shut down before it damages itself from running software.

 

[Speedo]

As was mentioned earlier, your PC will slow down or shut down before it damages itself from running software.

Pentium4 CPUs will. All others will happily let you melt them into oblivion.

 

[3 EMS]

Luckily by the time I heard of overclocking I already had a P4.

 

[Speedo]

Luckily by the time I heard of overclocking I already had a P4.

It's really a(nother) strike against P4s more than anything. More than a few models ran so hot that, without a near perfect cooling setup, they'd begin throttling themselves even at stock speeds.

 

[T.A JONES]

Pentium4 CPUs will. All others will happily let you melt them into oblivion.

Well not all of them!. Specs I posted previous 2 days before incident I just noticed thats the map/epic I was playing when she burned up

Spoiler :

ADD: Thanks for answering people! . @Quintillus Sounds like you had more electrifing expierence then me! Im sendin response after/during work if your still around. Need to make monies quick now so hope for me getting overtime

 

[Quintillus]

No, you had a more electrifying experience, I just came close to having one more so. Mine might have been more visually electrifying, but yours certainly was overall.

P4's do run hot. Before I cleaned my computer I had to wait 20 minutes or so to restart because it ran hot (not enough to turn off, though).

BTW, which mod is that? Looks interesting.

 

[T.A JONES]

Hey, sorry I like to write more then few words about my dear friend so I need block of time suitable First That mod was Anno Domini its longer available for download so I wish you never mentioned it

Id never seen units amass in such mega stacks by so many various nations all at the same time. I can't wait to resume, its a great mod, thats if its still around when I start up again.
I actually havn't got around to taking my rig for repairs yet so I can't even confirm whats all gone to hell yet. Sorry I may give closure to this tale if its not to sad, on some day

CivIII is probably innocent. Any process running 100% processor is the same strain. Did Civ always run this fast? Even if not, I highly doubt it was Civ that caused the change...maybe higher temperatures, IDK.

The 3.2 super heater Im packing with this setup may have something to do with it. I hear them say ghz don't mean sh#t in processor performance but I'll tell you right now, I've got a 2.0 ghz pentium 4 with 256 more ram then before right now and its so dismally slower on the turn time front that Im afraid I'll be puttin Civ3 away for now atleast till I get my ol rig back or by new.

OK heres the thing I bought this lighnting rod used and it was upgraded in its day from some crappy thing to 3.2, all the while keeping the same fan. So what happens when you put a ol fan designed to cool a 90's computer into mid millenium rig that powers the most taxing game of all time? Nothing good that I can tell ya!

Seriously, Can it hack the heat? The way she reved up on me playing Civ3 (and only CIv3) made it clear the fan wasn't designed for this gruelling punishment. But I couldn't stop!. Again, I must stress, It took Civ3 to crazy limits of time savings!! IM talking maps 190x190, 20civs or more and this thing never paused for moment. Not when a city switched hands, or when scrolling down military advisor menu chalked with 400 units or more. On capslock, only the amount of battles you watched determined the length of your turn and thats on any occasion I was ever in. All of my adventures in civving were sited for overly huge epics and it never churned out lag once. It was/still is a civ gaming god.

So ya, the rig was wired to perform to good for what it was designed for and was ready to have a heat attack any moment. Performing under the unbelieveable stressfuls conditions on levels this high must be a factor to its demise aswell. The surge was only the snappin point. You asked about tempature? Tempature probably near 30c(upstairs and humidex accounted) in a room somewhat smoky from all the anxiety an excitment resulting from action never before imagined on these levels (Hey! , its always building when commandin hundreds an never havin to pick up a book between turns,... Ok!? )
Anyway you may be right but as it may, I believe all these factors explain this rare pentium 4 meltdown.


Oh last thing, about the surge protecter? Yes. I did have one but it might have been damaged before... with me not gettin around to fix it
For a dude residing on top of biggest area lake on planet in city called Thunder Bay and not gettin around to fixxin it I guess I deserved what was coming . Still I just say this was bound to happen sometime . I'll write er off as a lesson learned.
Thanks again for reply (excuse bad typing)

 

[Speedo]

Well not all of them!. Specs I posted previous 2 days before incident I just noticed thats the map/epic I was playing when she burned up

Spoiler :

ADD: Thanks for answering people! . @Quintillus Sounds like you had more electrifing expierence then me! Im sendin response after/during work if your still around. Need to make monies quick now so hope for me getting overtime

Being melted by lighting and melted by overheating are two very different things.

 

[T.A JONES]

Being melted by lighting and melted by overheating are two very different things.

Ya sorry I misunderstood. Thought you ment pent4 had some kind of power surge protection.
Im saying Its still possable the damage could have been prevented if all the factors that existed, wern't at play at the time of the strike.

Not all situations like this have such cut n dry explanations I bet. Sure lighting reached it but I never said It directly pegged of my computer. I don't know if that matters being how much juice travels in a bolt (enough to light the world or something) but I think it flows like spread shot on contact so based on distance, far less overload would have resulted as opposed to a direct hit wI presume. I dunno ,Thats why I posted, to learn things and have thoery debunked by pros.

Ive lost power playin Civ3 before. Well at least twice actually and it was on this lesser pent4 peice of crap Im play for now. Again I admit Im no engineer or programmer so don't think Im trying to claim know all attitude on here.

 

[Ofuh]

On a somewhat related note:
Back at least a year ago, I was playing Age of Empires 2 online against my friend. We had custom taunts, and we liked to mess around and sometimes spam them. Was quite fun hearing about 500 Arnold Schwarzeneggers yelling at you. I was spamming taunts, when all of a sudden teh game started lagging like when a player gets disconnected. I was getting no word from him and he eventually dropped from the game. He did not come online for a few days.
Eventually when I saw him at least a week later, he told me that AoE killed his computer. We were just playing and all of a suddeen he heard part of the taunt get constantly repeated and his computer started making loud sounds. Then he noticed that "power scent" mixed with the type of smell when a bug goes into a halogen lamp. He noticed smoke coming from behind his desk and when he opened up his computer he saw half of it was black as if a fire happened and his video card (or cpu, I don't remember) was fried.
So the point of this was not only to share a similar story, but to say that yes it is possible that civ could kill your computer.

Related to lightning, I've thankfully never lost a television or computer to lightning, but I have lost speakers.
I had bought a set of speakers with a subwoofer for my computer. Here in Florida we get some pretty strong storms int he summer. On day, about three weeks after purchasing the speakers it was all peaceful, probably about 6-7 AM. I'm half asleep and I can faintly hear thunder way in the distance. Then out of nowhere, the house gets hit, it sounded like a bomb just went off in another room. The whole house shook and some stuff actually fell off of walls and the top of cabinets. It sets off the house alarm, probably waking up anyone in the neighborhood who wasn't already awake from the thunder. Later in the day I get on the computer and find out that my semi new speakers are dead. The surround sound system in the living room was semi dead, but started working again eventually. I kept my computer speakers in a closet for at least a year occasionally testing them to see if they would work, never had any luck. They ended up in front of the driveway and the garbage men hauled it to it's grave.

 

[Quintillus]

Wow, AoE II. That's two years older than Civ. Unless it was a really old computer, I still find it hard to believe that would fry the GPU or CPU. Maybe it was the last straw, but surely there had to be something else, or just a bad part that was going to fail eventually regardless of load.

Now sound card, maybe 500 Arnolds could cause some problems (that's a lot more sounds than most people probably would sent at once), and possibly an integrated sound card blowing could blow the CPU, but it still ought to hold up...no computer program should be able to cause a computer to blow. Old age (or in T.A. Jones's case an antiquated fan) could be a problem, like with any appliance.

Another lightning story: back in 10th grade I was helping with student mock elections (presidential elections at the time) and the school got struck by lightning. The fire alarms sounded and everyone evacuated, but the nothing got fried and remarkably the power stayed on. So that time there was no harm.

T.A., I wouldn't say you deserved what was coming. No one deserves that. True, you probably didn't take as many precautions as you should've with the cooling system and an up-to-date surge protector, but none of us are up-to-date on everything. But none of us take proper precautions with everything, and we almost all get burned because of it at some point. So it sucks when it does happen, but it's not a huge deal in the end.

And you ought to be able to play Standard, quite possibly Large maps on your old rig with the default number of civs. I started a Standard on my P-II 450 MHz a few weeks ago and it's running OK so far in the Middle Ages. Yeah, it's hard to play smaller maps, but consider it training for if you ever play Civ4 !

 

[T.A JONES]

^^ Yes I will try an make due with my lil pent2. Wait, I mean pent4 , 2.0 ghz It was never that bad playin Extra huge with it. Mybe takin 5 min at its worst instead of a minute or so max I enjoyed with my lightning rod. I will not buy a new system right away if its bad news later today . I don't have the desire eh, or means to pay

I have come to turns it was act of nature that beat up my turn beast and not my crazy maps sizes. Sorry to pros I must of been soundin stubbern. At least I hear some storys that Im not only one. Thanks @OFAH I though I was really unlucky or that losin stuff to lighnting was mega rare. It sure isn't a myth I realize now

 

[GVBN]

Pentium4 CPUs will. All others will happily let you melt them into oblivion.

Only if you have disabled CPU shutdown temperature in the BIOS

 

[Speedo]

Only if you have disabled CPU shutdown temperature in the BIOS

Assuming, that is, that you have such a feature in the first place.

Most boards don't.

 

[T.A JONES]

Hey All! Just though Id close chapter of lighnting ordeal with final damage assement for anyone intrested.


Well Its official anyway My power source blew up with the CPU. I guess I got lucky. Anyway cost me lil over 450 with taxs and now I guess I got 2 cpu's and a better vcard so I feel better now knowing I can watch many movies at a time, what fun! (not realy)

Oh just a note. For me two CPU's (i guess the term is dual core ) did nothing to improve the speed of which turns flew with Civ3. I guess its because of the strengh I was using before with my original 3.2 'monocore' (just learned that term and think it sounds cooler then 'dual' )

The fans (there are two now! ) are still as noisy as hell but only when taxed with crazy 'end game like' proportions Ive encoutered ever since going delay free with MegamapCiv3