Random Rants

[Harrison]

Congratualations! You must be so happy for her, and she must be very excited to finally be able to drive.

[Kin Hell]

3rd time she fails?
why don't you pick a nice, calm place, far from traffic, isolated, and practise a bit with her?

Ahhhh! - Steamy windows.....

[Tiago]

Finally !!!! I bet she is more then happy !

[Demon Cleaner]

Some days ago we had a huge thunderstorm here in my area, and the lightning struck one block away from my house into an electrical box, and all of the houses in my residential estate had stuff that got damaged.

For me, it was so far my modem, no internet working, my Mede8er (media player) is booting up but I get no image, my new Onkyo receiver, which seems to have given up passing image and sound via HDMI, and of course, how else could it be, my new beamer, which has a blinking warning light that flashes, but doesn't do anything, cannot boot it up

I was now 1 week in Budapest, and coming back on Saturday evening, this was surely no pleasant surprise at all, I'm quite mad.

Will have to call the guy now who sold me the stuff, if he knows what the problems could be, and if there's some kind of magical reset button trick, then I'll call my internet provider, and of course my insurance guy, as I have insurance for electrical devices in my house, that was a plus on the house insurance, and now I'm really glad I took it.

[Harrison]

If it was a power surge that caused a sudden electrical spike from lightening, then all the electronics could be damaged and the only way would be to replace it. Does your house have trip switches? If not do you connect everything to the mains sockets with surge protectors? I have all my equipment connected using Belkin surge protectors, which come with a lifetime $50,000 insurance against surge protection.

If they are protected, then a sudden power lose and cause PSUs to internally trip with a poly switch to protect themselves. Unplugging each item from the mains by disconnecting the actual plug from the socket, and waiting at least 30 seconds, then plugging back in can often reset the poly switch and allow it to work again.

[Demon Cleaner]

My house has trip switches, one for every room in the house. One was off when I came home, which is always the same one when there's some electrical issues, it's the one from my PC room, as there's a lot of connections.

I use surge protectors with overvoltage protection from APC, where all my devices pass.

Unplugging the beamer from power for 24h didn't help.

The devices also all still work, they switch on perfectly, like I mentioned in my post.

For me, it was so far my modem, no internet working, my Mede8er (media player) is booting up but I get no image, my new Onkyo receiver, which seems to have given up passing image and sound via HDMI, and of course, how else could it be, my new beamer, which has a blinking warning light that flashes, but doesn't do anything, cannot boot it up.

I called the internet provider, and they're gonna call me back to fix an appointment.

I called the guy which I bought beamer and receiver from, and he also tries to pass this week, to check on the things, but he already mentioned that the blinking warning light from the beamer is not a "good" sign.

The insurance send me papers to fill out for all the damage I have, and then I have to send it back to them.

With the Mede8er I don't know what to do as I bought it online, and sending it back for repair could take an eternity.

[Harrison]

Do you have proof of the electrical strike from the local authorities or electric company? If you can get that it would speed up any insurance claims as it would prove to them the cause from the outset. Also insurance companies will only pay out if they authorise someone to test the equipment. Otherwise they will refuse to pay.

Also remember you will need to replace all the surge protectors the damaged equipment was plugged into, because once they have protected from one surge, but a power spike as still damaged the connected equipment, it means they won't protect against any further surges.

I've been going thought this process at the moment with my house and it can take months. So far after a couple of months we are still waiting for any authorisation to get money from the insurance company to replace items. Our electrical kitchen appliances failed the PAT tests and so are authorised to be replaced. Those tests were now done over a month ago.

If you have all the receipts for the damaged equipment that will also be great as it will prove the value to the insurance company when making a claim. However if it is like the UK insurance system then they will ask you to find 3 similar products with varying prices, and will normally give you the middle price, so play it in your favour. We are doing this at the moment with our sofas. They were not damaged in the floods, but because they were still in the house when the house drying company install industrial drying equipment that has now damaged the leather and we have authorisation to have them replaced.

[Demon Cleaner]

There's one big proof, in the region I live, they have to replace stuff in over 50% of the households :-)

The internet provider guy came this morning, he replaced my old Thomson with a brand new Fritzbox 7390, the one I wanted to buy anyway, so that's already great, and internet is also working again. He wrote my a paper for the insurance that it had to be replaced as the old one is damaged, thus not repairable at all. He said it will be no problem at all to get the money back, as at the moment, the only thing he does, is replacing modems in a region of 25km wide.

The guy also told me, that they have boxes with distributors that withstand 10.000 volts, and even those blew, so you can imagine the impact it had here in the whole south.

As for the beamer and receiver, I have of course still the receipts, as I bought them not even 6 weeks ago, so that will be no problem. They will give you the exact value of a new one, or if it has to be repaired, they will pay that.

[Harrison]

Nice result on the new router. The Thomson routers are definitely not good. My ISP gave me a free one when I joined and it was rubbish. When replacing it I considered the Fritzbox, but in the end bought a Billion 7800n as it had slightly more features and better Wi-Fi speed, but other than that the Fritzbox is nice. Definitely looks nicer than the Billion too.

That was some lightening strike then to do that much damage in the are. Should have no problems claiming. Just so annoying having to wait for claims to be processed before you can get everything. Especially just after buying all your new setup too.

[Demon Cleaner]

Just so annoying having to wait for claims to be processed before you can get everything. Especially just after buying all your new setup too.

Exactly!!

Here's some of our news, in English:

http://www.wort.lu/en/view/tornado-i...b0c058fb267b58

http://www.wort.lu/en/view/emergency...b0c058fb26783a