In the IT world, there are some really lucky people… Well, more exactly, people who are lucky in their misfortune. Brother Zang has published a video of the repair of an RTX 3070 that survived a lightning strike. Unfortunately, the rest of the PC is ruined. The motherboard is charred, the cables have melted and the AIO tubes are completely blackened.
RTX 3070: the card that survives lightning strikes!
A miraculous card!
Broadly speaking, there was a thunderstorm not far from the owner’s place of work, a photographer. However, his building was struck by lightning and, due to a fault in the building’s protection system and a ground connection too close to the lightning rod, it burned down. Basically, two PCs completely burned out, along with some network and photo equipment, as well as some furniture.
However, a diagnosis of the graphics card, an RTX 3070, revealed no major fault, or at least no short circuit. According to the repairer, the graphics card is probably still alive. From then on, the usual cleaning method is used: the graphics card is run under hot water and placed in an ultrasound bath. Once clean, all that remains is to dry it in a temperature-controlled oven… You wouldn’t want to go for a complete reflow with a 200°C oven, would you?
A new heatsink and off you go!
Finally, all that’s left to do is reassemble the board. Obviously, a new heatsink is installed on the board, as well as a new backplate. Tests are then carried out to ensure that everything works, and BINGO! The card was able to pass a test on Furmark without any major problems.
Finally, during the lightning strike, it seems that the motherboard and PSU acted as a fuse, saving the graphics card. In short, a little luck in misfortune.
