A lightning strike is one of the most violent things that can happen to a computer. Unlike a gradual hardware failure that gives warning signs over weeks, a lightning event is instantaneous and total. One moment, everything is working; the next, you have a machine that won’t turn on, smells like burnt electronics, and potentially contains years of irreplaceable data.
The good news is that lightning damage — while serious — is not always the end of the road for your data or your hardware. The steps you take in the first few hours after a strike significantly affect both your safety and your chances of recovering what matters most.
This guide walks through exactly what to do, in the right order, when lightning hits your computer either directly or through your power or network infrastructure.
Step 1: Do Not Touch Anything Until the Storm Has Passed
This seems obvious, but it is frequently overlooked in the immediate panic of discovering damage. If the storm is still active, do not touch the affected equipment. Lightning can strike the same area multiple times, and handling connected equipment during an active storm creates a real risk of secondary electric shock.
Wait until the storm has completely passed, then approach the affected area. If there is any sign of fire, smoke, or burning smell that is still active rather than residual, evacuate and call the fire brigade before doing anything else.
Step 2: Safely Disconnect Everything
Once the storm has passed and you’re certain there is no ongoing fire risk, the first practical step is to physically disconnect everything connected to the affected computer. Unplug the power cord from the wall — not just from the computer. Disconnect any Ethernet cables, USB peripherals, monitors, printers, and any other connected devices.
Lightning damage travels through both power lines and data lines. A strike that comes through your internet connection rather than your power line can damage your modem, router, network switch, and any device connected by Ethernet. Disconnect all of these as well. Do not turn anything on or attempt to test it until a proper assessment has been done.
If the power point where the computer was plugged in shows any signs of burning, scorching, or melting, do not use it and have a licensed electrician inspect your home’s wiring before using those circuits again.
Step 3: Assess the Visible Damage
With everything safely disconnected, do a visual inspection. Look for obvious signs of electrical damage — burn marks on the back of the computer near the power input, melted or discoloured plastic on peripherals, a burning or acrid smell (which indicates components have burned internally), or visible damage to cables.
Common lightning entry points into a computer system are the power supply unit (PSU), the modem or network card (if the strike came through the internet line or phone line), and sometimes the graphics card or motherboard if the surge was severe enough to propagate through the internal circuitry.
One important observation: damage is not always visible externally. Some of the most common lightning-damaged components — capacitors, voltage regulators, motherboard traces — show no external signs of damage but have failed internally. Never assume a computer is fine just because it looks fine from the outside.
Step 4: Do Not Attempt to Power On the Computer
This is critical and widely misunderstood. The instinct after discovering a problem is always to try turning it on to see if it still works. With lightning-damaged equipment, this instinct can cause additional damage.
Here’s why: if the power supply unit has been damaged by the surge, powering it on can send incorrect voltages to components that survived the initial strike. A motherboard or hard drive that came through the lightning event intact can be destroyed by a second surge from a damaged PSU trying to power the system. Always have the power supply tested or replaced before attempting to boot a lightning-damaged system.
Step 5: Prioritise Data Recovery
For most people, the computer itself is replaceable. The data on it — documents, photos, client records, creative work, financial records — may not be. Prioritising data recovery over hardware repair is almost always the right decision.
The hard drive or SSD in your computer is often one of the more resilient components in a lightning event. Drives are housed in the centre of the machine, shielded somewhat from power line surges by the PSU and other components. If the strike came through the power line and the PSU absorbed the worst of it, your drive may be completely intact even if the rest of the machine is destroyed.
Our lightning strike computer repairs service begins with exactly this assessment — determining which components were damaged and whether the drive can be accessed before any repair work begins.
If the hard drive itself is damaged, data recovery from a lightning-affected drive is a specialised process. Our emergency data recovery service handles urgent situations where the data is critical and time matters. For HDD-specific failures following a lightning event, our HDD data recovery service addresses the physical and electronic failure modes that lightning damage typically causes to spinning drives.
If your drive is an SSD, the failure modes are different — lightning can damage the controller chip that manages the NAND flash cells, potentially making data inaccessible even when the flash itself is intact. Our SSD data recovery service addresses these controller-level failures specifically.
The blog on what to do when your hard drive fails provides useful context for understanding what type of failure you may be dealing with, and our guide on recovering lost photos and files covers what’s possible when data loss appears total.
Step 6: Identify What Was Damaged — Component by Component
Lightning damage to a computer system is rarely uniform. Understanding which components were actually damaged — versus which survived — is what determines whether repair or replacement is the right path. Here is what typically gets hit and what the symptoms look like.
Power Supply Unit (PSU)
The PSU is the first line of defence against power surges and the most commonly damaged component in a lightning event. A failed PSU means the computer won’t power on at all. However, a PSU that appears completely dead may have simply triggered its internal protection circuit — some PSUs reset after a surge and can be tested before replacement. Others are genuinely fried and need replacement before anything else can be assessed. Our power supply repair service tests and replaces damaged PSUs as part of a broader lightning damage assessment.
Motherboard
The motherboard is the central hub through which all power and data flow, which makes it vulnerable to lightning damage even when the surge has been partially absorbed by the PSU. Motherboard damage from lightning can range from individual burned capacitors (sometimes repairable) to catastrophic failure of the board’s voltage regulators or chipset. Signs of motherboard damage include the system not posting (no display at all on startup), random shutdowns, or USB and network ports that no longer function. Our motherboard repairs service covers lightning-related board damage across all major brands.
Network Card or Modem
If the lightning entered through your internet connection — via the cable TV line, phone line, or NBN connection — the modem or router is typically the point of entry and the first casualty. From there, the surge can travel through the Ethernet cable to your network card or directly into the motherboard’s built-in network interface. This pathway is how computers get damaged by lightning even when they’re on a surge-protected power board — because the data lines bypass the power protection entirely.
Graphics Card
High-end graphics cards are power-hungry components with their own power circuitry, making them vulnerable to power-line lightning surges. A damaged GPU typically presents as no display output, graphical artefacts on screen, or complete failure to POST. Our GPU repair services and graphics card repair address GPU-level damage that may be separate from the broader motherboard assessment.
Hard Drive or SSD
As discussed above, storage drives are more sheltered than other components but not immune, particularly if the surge was severe or if the strike came through a USB connection to an external drive. Signs of drive damage include clicking sounds (HDD), the drive not being detected by the system, or unusual errors when accessing files.
Step 7: Get a Professional Diagnostic Assessment
Lightning damage assessment requires physically opening the machine, testing individual components with the right equipment, and knowing what to look for in each component type. This is not a DIY job for a machine that has potentially had significant electrical damage — attempting to power it on without proper testing can turn a partial loss into a total one.
Our computer repairs Melbourne service includes a full diagnostic assessment as the starting point for any lightning damage case. The assessment identifies exactly which components were damaged, what can be repaired versus what needs replacement, and — critically — whether your data is accessible and how to recover it safely.
For the data recovery component specifically, our data recovery Melbourne service handles everything from drives that are detected but throwing errors to completely unrecognised drives. Our emergency data recovery Melbourne service is available for situations where the data is business-critical and turnaround time matters.
Step 8: Assess Whether to Repair or Replace
Once you have a complete picture of what was damaged, the repair-versus-replace decision can be made with actual information rather than guesswork. The key variables are the age and pre-lightning value of the machine, the cost of replacing the damaged components, and whether the data has already been successfully recovered.
For a machine that is four or more years old with multiple damaged components, replacement is often the more cost-effective path — particularly if the motherboard is among the casualties, as modern motherboard replacements can approach the cost of a new system. For a newer machine with only one or two damaged components (most commonly the PSU and potentially the network card), repair typically makes clear financial sense.
Our blog on when to get a new computer provides a practical framework for this decision, and our equipment consultation service can guide you through the replacement options if repair isn’t the right path.
If you need a replacement machine and are weighing your options, our guides on laptop vs desktop and what to consider when buying a laptop provide practical buying guidance.
Step 9: Check Your Insurance
Lightning damage is a covered event under most Australian home and contents insurance policies. Before spending anything on repairs, check your policy. If lightning caused the damage, your insurer may cover the cost of repairs or replacement — potentially including data recovery costs if you can demonstrate that the data had business or personal value.
To make a successful insurance claim for computer equipment damaged by lightning, you will need the date and time of the lightning event (cross-reference weather data if needed), a professional assessment confirming lightning as the cause of damage, itemised quotes for repair or replacement, and documentation of what was lost.
Our insurance reports service provides the professional damage assessment documentation that insurers require to process claims for electronic equipment. Our insurance report for data lost service specifically covers the documentation needs for data loss claims, which require a different format of evidence than hardware damage claims.
Preventing It From Happening Again: What Actually Works?
Once your immediate situation is resolved, preventing a recurrence is the obvious next priority. The options range from very basic to comprehensive.
Unplug During Storms
The single most effective protection against lightning damage to your computer is physical disconnection from all external lines during electrical storms — power, Ethernet, phone, and cable TV. This is inconvenient but essentially foolproof. A physically unplugged computer cannot be damaged by lightning travelling through those lines.
Surge Protectors vs UPS
A standard power board with surge protection offers basic protection against minor power spikes but provides essentially no meaningful protection against a direct or nearby lightning strike. The energy in a lightning event vastly exceeds what consumer-grade surge protectors are designed to handle.
An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) with proper surge protection circuitry provides more robust protection against power line surges, plus the benefit of battery backup that allows clean shutdown during power outages. For business equipment or high-value home systems, a quality UPS is worth the investment. Our blog on whether you really need a battery backup for your PC provides an honest assessment of what these devices actually protect against. Similarly, our guide on power outage protection for computers covers the full range of protection options and their real-world effectiveness.
Critical point: Surge protectors only protect the power line. If you have an Ethernet cable running from your router to your computer, that cable is an unprotected entry point for lightning surges regardless of what your power board says. For comprehensive protection, either use Wi-Fi instead of a wired connection or install a network surge protector on your Ethernet line. Our home networking service can assess your setup and identify unprotected entry points.
Whole-House Surge Protection
The most comprehensive protection for a home or small business with multiple computers and valuable electronics is a whole-house surge protector installed at the main switchboard. This provides a first line of defence against power line surges before they reach any device in the building, complementing (not replacing) individual device-level protection.
Back Up Your Data
No amount of surge protection eliminates the risk of lightning damage entirely. The only protection against permanent data loss is a backup that exists somewhere physically separate from the location of the lightning strike. Our blog on cloud backup vs external hard drive compares the main backup strategies, and our data backup and recovery service can set up automated backup systems that ensure your data is always protected regardless of what happens to your hardware. The guide on why you need a backup and the best options is worth reading if your backup strategy is currently non-existent or inadequate.
The cloud backup service specifically addresses the off-site backup component that protects data from physical events like lightning, fire, and theft — the scenarios where a local-only backup provides no protection.
What About Devices Other Than Your Desktop or Laptop?
Lightning damage in a home or office rarely affects just one device. Any device connected to the same power circuit, phone line, or network at the time of the strike may be affected.
Monitors: A monitor connected by HDMI or DisplayPort to a struck computer can be damaged through the signal cable. Test your monitor on a different, known-good device before assuming it survived.
Printers and scanners: Devices connected via USB may have been damaged if the surge propagated through the USB connection. Our printers and scanners service assesses and repairs peripheral damage alongside the main computer. Our fix printer issues with IT support resource covers what to check if your printer stopped working after a storm.
Routers and modems: Almost always the first casualty if the strike came through the internet line. Replace these first and contact your ISP to confirm the line itself is undamaged before connecting new equipment.
Smart home devices: Any smart home device on the same circuit or network may have been damaged. Our smart home installation service can assess and restore smart home systems affected by electrical events.
External hard drives and USB devices: Anything connected by USB at the time of the strike may have been damaged. External drives connected during a surge event are common casualties — if an external drive is no longer recognised after a lightning event, our USB data recovery service handles data recovery from damaged external drives specifically.
Conclusion
Safety first — don’t touch anything during an active storm, and check for fire risk before approaching damaged equipment.
Do not attempt to power on a lightning-damaged computer. Test or replace the PSU first to avoid damaging components that survived the initial strike.
Prioritise data recovery before hardware repair. Your storage drive may have survived even if the rest of the machine didn’t.
Get a professional diagnostic before spending money on parts. Lightning damage is rarely confined to a single component and you need a full picture before making repair-versus-replace decisions.
Check your insurance policy — lightning is typically a covered event and professional documentation supports a successful claim.
Prevent recurrence with physical disconnection during storms, proper UPS protection, network-line surge protection, and reliable off-site data backup.
