There was a lighting strike very nearby yesterday and now my computer will not turn on.
I get a screen showing Windows Error Recovery with two options, Launch Startup Repair or Start Window Normally, both options freeze and do nothing.
Any hope of trying something else or is the computer toast?
If you are getting that far your hardware is most likely fine. What version of windows are you using?
Assuming Vista or 7, reboot pc and keep tapping F8 till you get a menu,
one of those menu options will be “Command prompt”
select it
you will get a text only command line interface and a blinking cursor
type chkdsk /r
let it run. it may take a while
If it finds errors and says it fixed them great, that may fix the issue try rebooting
if that does not help you may need a local shop or skilled buddy to help patch up windows or backup your stuff and reload.
Thank you. I hit F12 and am running diagnostics. So far it seems like all the hardware is fine.
When this is done I will try running chkdsk.
Wow! I have never been that close to a lightning strike before. I was standing and looking out the glass door in my living room, watching it hail and I heard a sizzling in my left ear, like bacon frying and then a boom/flash.
I hope I get the machine up. I am finding that I really hate typing on my wife’s laptop.
You might think about investing in one of these in the future. Or computers are a lot cheaper now, you could just keep a extra PSU on-hand and hope your existing PSU burns out before it blows the motherboard.
Windows may have suffered a serious enough crash that it can’t recover from operating system wise. If I was you to double check it’s not your windows installation I would try booting off some portable operating system. If that works then you know you’re hardware is good enough to boot up.
No luck booting from safe mode. The machine gets stuck while loading drivers. Can’t get to a command prompt either.
As a side note. If you know an electrical storm is approaching, unplug your valuable electronics and remove the internet cable if you have one attached to your computer. I know, this doesn’t help this time, but it might help in the future.
people that are attached to their electronics will unplug them when a lightning storm is happening. unplug both the power, cable, phone and antennas. keep a less expensive tv, radio and phone to keep plugged in during the storm.
it is always a crap shoot. if you can hear thunder then you can be stuck by lightning. people have storms all the time and never have damage.
The PSU isn’t the problem here, or anything else (hardware) from the sound of it. Also, a PSU burning out won’t save the motherboard, it is only because the PSU is directly connected to the power line and therefore is far more likely to fail (surges will not get through a SMPS transformer, although the voltage could arc over inside or on the PCB).
Although I agree that if you have a computer a UPS is a must, not an option, unless you have totally reliable power; a power failure while the computer is writing to the hard drive can really mess things up with either incomplete data or gibberish written to the drive.
Of course, a direct lightning hit will blow your computer no matter how many surge protectors you have, even a whole-house surge protector (maybe it will reduce the damage somewhat, but the difference is like between your house burning down and a bunch of dead electronics, if possibly salvageable).
This. I have a bodacious UPS, and I still take my computer off the grid (including unplugging the printers that are connected to it) if storms are coming. I’m self-employed and no computer = no work = no $$$.
The update so far, in case anyone is still interested. The OS is Windows 7 64 bit, Dell computer.
Hitting F12 at start up and running the diagnostics it shows no problem with any hardware. I have tried all the boot options but still get lockup while trying Start up Repair or booting in safe mode.
Drivers start loading but then it freezes. This morning after researching a little more, I came home and burned a System Recovery Disk off the Windows 7 64 bit laptop I am typing on now. I was sure this would allow me to boot from the disk. Reset the boot options to boot from CD and while the files loaded a little slower the result was the same. Partial loading of drivers and lock up.
I have a new Windows 8 machine on the way but I would really like to understand why this PC won’t boot.
I am a bit of a tinkerer and shade tree mechanic and it doesn’t seem like this should be out of reach to fix.
Any other ideas as to something to try?
The restore disk has the drivers imaged in for the laptop which are most likely not entirely compatible with any other model of machine. If you get a standard windows disk image you should be able to do it.
This is the disk image, you can use your laptop to burn an install DVD from that image. It will ask for a windows key that will be on a sticker on your case. Good luck 
The diagnostics probably won’t test anything that didn’t come as part of the computer. Are there any gadgets plugged into it that you could try unplugging?
I wonder if there is a memory fault, which can explain the freezing whether you try to boot off the hard drive or off a CD; the built-in diagnostics may not fully test the memory so it reports it as good when there is a fault. You can test it with a utility like memtest86 (free download).