Topic: GameCube struck by lightning

[jinnamon]

My 10 year old son has had his Gamecube for about a year. A month ago we had a bad storm and a few things in the house were zapped, even some equipment on surge protectors. My son's GC lost it's picture, but kept the sound. We bought a new one with insurance settlement money and now this past week another bad storm came along, and a few things were zapped - one of them being his replacement GC. It is the same problem, no more picture, just sound. The TV that it is attached to is just fine. We have tried multiple games, so it is definitely the console. Is there a fuse or a way to reset the game? We can't file this on insurance again because we will probably lose the insurance policy if we do it again so soon, and can't really afford to buy another GC right now. Any help would be appreciated!

Jennifer

[anubis6789]

If you bought a USA cube and live in the USA there should be a one year warrenty on the GC, I'm not sure it covers this type of thing, but it probably does. The only down side to this is that it may take you a few weeks to get your new cube.

Well I hope that helped.

[jinnamon]

I found a place in my town that does repairs on GameCubes. He said it was a bad motherboard, and he replaced it from a trashed GC that they had in stock. It cost $35...not too bad.

He said to never keep the GC on carpet, and to keep it dusted. That explains the first GC going out, but the replacement GC was only 3 weeks old, on a wood floor and not dusty...so not sure what happened there, but we did get 2 blown motherboards.

If you need repairs, check out places that sell used games and consoles, or that advertise for DVD disc repair. That is how I found this place. They aren't allowed to buy parts from Nintendo, so they buy broken consoles to repair them.  

[mouse_clicker]

I'm glad things worked out for you- I couldn't imagine my console getting blown out from a thunder storm twice.

[Pale]

I would be sure your outlet is getting consistant power.....it isn't plugged into a light dimmer plug is it?  I've heard of people doing this before and frying consoles...

[Grey Ninja]

And they say that lightning doesn't strike twice.  

[KDR_11k]

There are systems that protect your machines from power spikes like those caused by a thunderstorm. They might seem expensive but you should use them on expensive devices.

[KnowsNothing]

Lightning doesn't strike twice?  PFFFFFT!!!!  The tree at the corner of my street was struck 3 times, I think.  The tree is gone now, but the telephone pole that was right next to it that was also struck is still standing.