During a thunderstorm, do you turn off your computer and unplug it?

No. During the last storm we had I was on AIM talking to my friend about how awesome it was. I would also run and stand outside in the middle of my driveway and take pictures of the lightning.
I love storms.

If it’s a really bad storm, I might unplug it, but if I want to use it, I’ll use it. That’s the beauty of laptops.

You bet I do. Especially when there’s lightening. I have everything plugged into a surge protector, but when it gets bad, I shut it down & unplug it from the wall. Too much money to take a gamble.

I will from now on. Last summer lightening struck our yard, traveled along my cable wire into my room and shorted out my computer while I was plugged in.

No, I used to when I was young with the family computer, but not my laptop.

I unplug it. But like others have said, I stay on it because it is a lappy.

YES!! and your Internet too because in the last thunderstorm we had made our Internet not work for like a week!!!

my mac loves thunderstorms….i’m afraid he’s a bit precious like that…

I never do and never did, even with desktops. Looks like I better start.

I’m still new to thunderstorms, so I never realized that I should. Now that I’ve read this thread I’ll certainly start to… Who am I kidding, I’m not gonna unplug it every time the angels start bowling.

I power down the desktop and shut the power strip off. I even flick off the power strips for the TV and stereo. Laptop get unplugged from the wall.
There’s no reason to risk it.

I unplug the laptop, work on battery and wireless internet. With the desktop, everything, printer, scanner, monitor etc. is plugged into a power strip and I just pull the one plug. As Lupin says, I do the same with the telly and stereo too. Power strips make it much easier.

During the wet here, there are serious lightning storms every day so I just do it as a matter of course when I leave the house at 1, the storms don’t usually start until later in the afternoon.

Better safe than sorry.

Well, seeing as how I’m typing this in the midst of quite the storm… no. I’m on a desktop, but everything is plugged in to a surge protector. What’s the point of using them if you unplug?

We have anti-surge circuit breakers installed, and they were once tripped during a storm (nothing was damaged, so they seem to work).

Not that the weather in England ever really goes outside the tepid range.

@augustlan – Surge protectors are good up to a point, but lightning is unpredictable. I had a surge protector and everything on it fry with a direct hit so I am more careful now. Also your phone line (if you’re not on wireless) should be disconnected as well, that is a direct link. And there are different sorts of surge protectors so it depends on what type you are using.

I guess it is a question of playing the odds, how likely are you to suffer a direct hit to your power or phone line close enough to your house to do damage???

Depending on the level of the storm, I may turn it off. I never unplug it, though.

I was told that even with a power strip, if it’s close by, it can travel in the lines. We had the transformer here in our back yard hit a year or so ago. What kind of toast do you think this would have been if it’d been plugged in? Nothing’s so important that I can’t shut this down for an hour or so & be guaranteed that it’s safe from being fried.

I guess I’m a rebel. ;-)

@augustlan—All of our stuff is hooked up to surge protectors, too, but last summer we had a storm that fried my modem, two televisions, an air conditioner, two VCR/DVD players, and a satellite box. And when the modem fried, I got a nice electric shock because I was typing at the time.

@MacBean case in point…......

Yeouch! Well the storm seems to have passed, for the moment.

I turned it off earlier because we had really bad hail (wth? Hail in summer?) and lightning, wind, thunder, etc. It was a bad storm, I usually just leave the computer. Never unplug though.

I turn off the whole house, which is half glass. Sitting in the dark and watching the panorama of a full-fledged lightening storm is terrifying. Milo huddles against my heart.

@MacBean; Did you get that beauty last night? It arrived here from your neighborhood about 8:30 and lit up the sky until about 9:45. More nasy stuff tomorrow, I understand.

Awh, just that image makes me want to cuddle little Milo.

::computer cuddle::

Give that to Milo for me, will ya? ;-)

@mangeons: Will do. It will be easy since he is asleep and partly draped on the keyboard. He enjoys the heat generated by the external hard drive, in spite of the sharp corners (rather like getting a mammogram). And he’s not so little…11 lbs and a long lean body. He stretches out to about 3 feet, according to the holes in my screens.

I will unplug if it seems especially bad. Husband does not, because he says that surge protectors are better nowadays than they used to be. I’m not so sure that the Earth’s Atmosphere can be defeated by a few wires, though!

@gailcalled Aww, that is too cute! I want to see a picture of Milo. =(

Nope, I usually get online to check the weather.

The last storm we had took out my contractor’s building power station, his internal circuit box, copier dishwasher, every power strip in the place and 8 macs.

I unplug now. I just add up my man hours for getting everything back up and running and installed then bill myself. It isn’t worth it.

@gailcalled: Sure did! Lost power, too, right when I was in the middle of a chapter of my book. I had to switch to candlelight.

The wires to our house were hit once when we were on vacation. We came home and noticed clocks blinking and no telephone service. Both of the surge pellets on the phone junction were destroyed. They did their job. We only had to replace a cordless phone.

@Lupin Good morning again. ;-)

No i don’t never have never will . My mother covers her mirrors during these storms tho :(
Bowling

Does it make a difference if you live in an apartment building with over 100 other apartments? Am I still at risk in a storm?

I’d say as long as it’s plugged in yes, you’re at risk. What if the main inlet gets struck? Just be safe & unplug everything.

@SirBailey – yup. See here that junction box was for 4 buildings

Geesh!

Yes, as soon as lightning and thunder are only one second apart.

Yep, but only if the lightning’s within a mile of home. We tend to unplug any other expensive appliances as well.