During last night's storm, our oak tree which is about 50' from the main panel took a direct hit from lightning. So far

4 switches
Cudy P5 LTE router
Mesh wifi system
and Computer

All not working. Everything is behind it's own ISOBAR surge protector. All still say protected and seem to be functioning fine, so I don't know what the hell the point of those is.

Anyway, my son's BRAND NEW gaming computer that we built is not working.

On boot it goes to the BIOS screen. Saving and exiting just takes it back to the screen.

If you get past BIOS screen it flashes HDMI and goes black and goes back to BIOS. It's a DP connextion.

I don't know what to do next.

Possible that the ethernet lines got smacked and a surge went up those. I had lots of random crap get smoked a handful of years ago from a lightning strike while we were out of town.

As for the HDMI issue, try a different cable, or a different HDMI port (if you have more than one), and a different monitor if you have one.

The screen comes on, and I can work through teh bios GUI not problem. Same issue with HDM and DP. It just doesn't go past that.

I thought maybe video card, but that can't be since it's sending a signal. I just don't even know how to troubleshoot it. Could be anything.. literally.

Does it recognize the hard drive in the BIOS menu?

New update. For whatever reason, it booted to windows. No internet. The internet LED on teh back of the case is dimly lit yellow.

That's what the LED's on the back of my 550 dollar LTE router looked like as well. I think the network part of the motherboard is toasted. Wifi adapters do work fine. So, I think the first course of action is to replace the motherboard first and go from there.

This is working good enough for now. I am obviously busy with roofing now but my kids homeschool so I had to get something hacked together for them in the interim.

I missed where you originally said you could see the bios screen. I wrongfully assumed you could just hear it post.

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Everything is behind it's own ISOBAR surge protector. All still say protected and seem to be functioning fine, so I don't know what the hell the point of those is.

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Good point. I try to remember to unplug my surge protectors during lightning storms.

close strike induce large voltages in any length of wire. Many years ago blew up pickup, wires and inputs from turntable, VU meters on cassette player, output transistors on amplifier and crossovers in speakers but all powered up fine and I repaired. Insurance actually paid for the "repairs" from a 3rd party quote.
A quick get back online without replacing motherboard would be a usb Ethernet adapter. I have used in cases exploded interface, actually have a usb video card and have used it on laptops with destroyed screens.

Definitely sounds like it made its way in via cable line and traveled through the ethernet so surges wont do diddly squat to block that unless your route the ethernet through them too. All the hit devices plugged into one. That PC may boot now but its got some fried parts. Hopefully its just the mobo and not the HDD and GFX too. I would make a backup of all important files on the drive just to be sure for a while that it wont fail. Your homeowners will cover anything damaged by the lightening strike btw.

Take pictures of the strike location. The insurance can be picky if you cant show it was a strike and not just a surge from the electrical company. Get an adjuster out there to document it. If you go this route, get everything replaced in all those devices, even if they seem to work ok now, they were attached to the device that was hit in some way.

Thanks for the insight, folks. It's interesting what lived and what didn't. I am replacing most everything that was involved. PC probably won't be covered in full since it works. Other things attached to the Ethernet cables lived and some didn't. So wierd.

Motherboard swap is not too hard. but the adapter sure is an easy fix.

Can't really tell what else was affected. It either works or it doesn't, so who knows.

For instance, the main mesh box died, but the three satellites attached directly to it survived and seem to have no issues at all. The lte router died, but the high dollar gigabit router attached to it works fine.

If you go the insurance route, throw it all at them and see what they agree to replace with new or compensate for replacement. If you're paying the deductible(if you have one), might as well.

Example: Tell them the gaming pc and attached monitor were hit. It does not boot 100% successfully anymore or always display a picture when the machine looks to be booting. Tell them your costs to replace in full. Let them come back with an offer.

Same for all your other devices. List them. Provide a direct replacement cost with a cited example like Amazon or Newegg. Make them work for you for once lol. God knows we pay them a **** ton each year for our houses even when nothing happened and have zero claims for years.

Also be sure to check any exterior lights/cameras or equipment like sprinkler systems or pool equipment. Even your AC unit. They can all have damage but still work enough to not break immediately.

Claim filed.

BTW, the PC is booting to the BIOS again today. I don't know why. I hate to rebuild this from scratch.

From a realistic standpoint, and those with lightning experience, do i really need to replace the ENTIRE system? As in, from PSU to CPU and everything in between?

I'd start with what's known to be acting up and expand as needed.

I had a close or direct strike take out the LCD controller on the TV the Wii power supply, and damage the video card ony desktop. The TV was the only common factor between all of it so I assume that's what the initial hit went through.

FWIW I replaced the board in the TV, the PSU AND VIDEO catd on the desktop and got years more use of the system. Anyway YMMV.

Suggest that everyone check their network interface box where the provider fiber/cable connects to the home system (normally a tan box on the outside of the house). The box should be grounded. If it is not, call your provider and have it done. This was the culprit in my case.

The lightning strike took out a rack of distributed video and audio equipment, a switch, a Mac and everything else that was connected via Ethernet. I always preferred hardwire instead of depending on Wi-Fi. The home was only a couple of years old and the ground wire was not present. Surprisingly, I got AT&T to pay for everything - after about 5 months of hounding them. About $17k of equipment.