Last night lightning hit at the end of my house. It took out all the cable. This morning the cable guy came and fixed the cable. Only 2 of the 5 televisions will work. He checked the cable lines to the 3 that won't work and said it's in the tvs. Two of the televisions have just a solid dark blue on the screen when turned on. No volume at all either. The third won't turn on at all. The one television that has just a dark blue screen and no sound is a Panasonic Model# Ct-36G24A. I don't have the other model numbers right now. Also, the other tv that gets only a dark screen and no sound was connected to an x-box. The x-box won't even turn on now. The cable guy checked the power cord on the x-box and said it's fine. I need someone's expertise. I don't know why 3 tvs would go at once. Why one won't turn on at all and the 2 that will turn on have the dark screen and no sound. Is it the picture tube? It just killed my tvs and x-box. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
That's really strange. Two different members posting a similar question at the same time. Perhaps the two of you were hit by the same storm.
Electronic devices do not like lightning strikes. It could have fried or shorted out any number of electronic components. Electricity follows the path of least resistance, which is why not all electronic devices will blow when your home suffers from a huge surge in power. In the end, normally a few devices with low resistance like TVs, because they're normally connected to a ground in the form of a cable connection, take the brunt force of the jolt. In this case, it looks like the XBOX was collateral damage, probably getting hit through a surge in the video connection from the TV.
You could investigate the boards of each TV as long as you want, but the fact remains that most TVs fried this way are not worth repairing. You'll likely need to replace all devices that were blown up. My best advice to you is to look at possible compenation from your homeowner's insurance, and see if they will cover the damage. It may be your best option for getting new stuff.
If your insurance won't cover it, you may be forced to foot this bill on your own. But, before you throw it all out, take all affected devices to a service center for an estimate. It's possible that some of your devices can be fixed cheaper than they can be replaced.
I wish I had better news, but when it comes to lightning, you only get good news if you don't get hit at all.
GET A SURGE PROTECTTOR AND NEXT TIME STORM COMES SHUT OFF ALL ELCTRONICS AND UNPLUNG COMPUTERS, TVS, GAMING CONSOLES BECAUSE THE SAME THING HAPPENDTO MEE
Make sure you buy a good surge protector because i bought a cheap one and lightning hit the tree behind my house and still fried my tv. good luck!
lightning struck near my house today and the one tv that was on now just has snow. Is there any hope for this tv or not. I would think it would be blue or just not turn on if it had blown completely. What do you think ?
This same thing happened to me. I had $50 surge protectors on all my devices. No other electrical equipment was damaged except the things that were hooked up to a cable connection via coax cable. My modem, telephone modem, cable box, and two televisions all were zapped. Lightning struck the cable box across the street. Good luck with getting it covered too. Home owners won't cover it bc they consider it a failed surge protector. The surge protector company won't cover it bc it didn't come through the power outlet came through coax owned by the cable company. And forget the cable company. I have had a claim with them for Over a month.