Lightening strike killed Ethernet connection and more?

Hi, SeankriegerPA -

Welcome to Apple's Discussions.

I had a similar experience a couple years ago - lightning struck across the street, and a twinkle of it ran through my home office. I was using my G4/500 (AGP) at the time.

I lost ethernet. Checked the phone lines and DSL modem, they were okay. Then I began testing other hardware. It turned out that the lightning fried one ethernet cable and my ethernet switch, but nothing else. I had spares on hand (still do), so was back up quickly once I identified what had died.

Check everything - usually this means replacing cables one at a time, etc. If you have a hub, switch, or router in the mix, try bypassing it to see if that makes a difference.

Provided your G4 is a Gigabit Ethernet or newer model, it has an auto-sensing ethernet port, so it makes no difference whether you use a Patch type or a Crossover tyoe cable to connect it to the modem.

If it is an AGP or PCI model it does not have an auto-sensing port. In that case, although you should use a Patch cable between the Mac and a hub/switch/router, when you direct-connect the Mac to a device such as a modem you would need to use a Crossover type cable.

Also, the ethernet port on the Mac must be connected to a live device before booting the Mac, else the ethernet port gets switched off during boot.

I also had lightning strike my house, in May 2006, and had the same result. The computer still works fine, except I cannot connect to the Internet. We had two other computers in the house (all Windows PCs) that also lost connection. One PC was completely fried. We replaced the NIC card in one PC with no change. We tried connecting to the Mac with a different internet cable to a hook-up in the room where the digital cable comes in to the house and where we know it is working. Nothing.
My husband says the Internet card on the G4 is integrated into the motherboard. I'd love confirmation from someone about that. This makes me sick because I'd just completed a total upgrade of the computer over the last year or so that had it humming. I'd love to make it fully serviceable again, if that's possible and not too expensive.
I haven't reloaded the OS or any other software. Everything else is working normally so I figure it is a hardware problem.
I know a lot about my Mac, but this is outside of my realm of past experience. I'm clueless about what to do. Will it take a new motherboard? If so, how do I go about finding the right one?

Hi,
I'm new here, I had a similar problem with my G4AGP last week. My Built-in ethernet got zapped by some act of god and so the external ADSL modem ... But lucky me the computer still work.
So to make a long story short and to fix that, I simply bought a "D-Link DGE-530T" PCI ethernet card. It's not officially supported for mac but it's cheap and work like a charm.
You just need the right mod driver for it. You can find more info at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com.

Hope it help.

G4 400 AGP Mac OS X (10.4.6) Gigadesign cpu accelerator

I'm having a similar problem. I lost internet connection when an electrical storm fried my cable modem. I installed a brand new replacement modem from the cable company but still could not connect. A long phone conversation with the cable company tech support determined that the modem was working and the problem must be that the built-in ethernet card was fried.

The problem is I can't seem to find a replacement network card that has driver software that will run on a Mac. Does anyone know of a card and driver that is supported by OSX or a card that will run on a G4 without a driver? On www.xlr8yourmac.com I found some mention of the NetGear GA311 gigabit pci adapter being able to just plug into a G4 and run with a problem. Can anyone verify this?

I'm looking for a real solution that someone has actually had success with -- not just theory! Thanks.

I'm going thru a similar thing with my PM G4 867 Quicksilver. My ethernet port is dead from a lightning storm in GA. From other posts I've been told that the port is on the motherboard; you have two options for connecting to the internet:

1) Add an (older) airport card and connect to a wireless network, or

2) Add a PCI ethernet card to one of the G4's slots
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/presto_gig.html

I think I'm going to add the Sonnet card since it's cheaper.

Thank you Derek for your post. I'm about to buy a MacPro but I still want to get the G4 fully working again. My PC-using computer analyst husband wants to have it. He was insulted when I said I wanted to keep it, so I gave in. Maybe he can set up our network again, this time with the benefit of two Macs in it, so I can burn data from the MacPro to the wonderful DVD-RAM drive on the G4. Just have to locate some more of those rare TYPE 1 disks! He loves UNIX, so I'm sure he'll be teaching me some new stuff.

I think I'll try the Sonnet card too. Again, thanks!

Debbie

Debbie,

Good luck with that. The MacPro is nice!

My problem has been solved. Received a new AEBS and using a different cable modem; the ethernet port on the PM is now working again! I guess the LAN was bad on the AEBS too.

I added a 320 Gb external drive and plan to keep the G4 as long as I can. Been a good machine.


15 PB G4 1.5, PM G4 867, PB G3 400, color iPod 20GB Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Thanks for the report on your own solution. However, I'm just a bit confused. What is an AEBS? Something about Airport Extreme? I don't have an Airport card on my machine. Never needed one.

Did you just buy a new cable modem, or is it that you are using a different brand that is working when another did not? I'll have to check with my husband about whether we tried a different cable modem. He manages the modem and hub for our home network.

I guess I'll go ahead and order the Sonnet replacement for the card and see what happens. The MacPro is on its way to me as of today, so I need to get this old machine ready to hand off.

Debbie
____________________

You wrote:
My problem has been solved. Received a new AEBS and using a different cable modem; the ethernet port on the PM is now working again! I guess the LAN was bad on the AEBS too.

I added a 320 Gb external drive and plan to keep the G4 as long as I can. Been a good machine.

Yes, AEBS = airport extreme base station. It was under warranty. The local Apple store said the ethernet port wasn't working, but the rest was OK. They gave me another one.

When I switched to Comcast digital voice, they installed a modem for the phone. It can also be used for the internet. I was using a separate splitter line with another cable modem. Since it died, I now use the same Comcast modem for voice and internet.

I have the Powermac and printer cabled from the AEBS and then all the other portable Macs use the airport card. I have an airport express also to extend the wireless network and play airtunes thru a separate stereo system.

Let me know how that card works out and what you think of the MacPro.

15 PB G4 1.5, PM G4 867, PB G3 400, color iPod 20GB Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I too read the various reports on xlr8yourmac about the NetGear GA311. My husband had purchased this card to try in my son's PC that had lost its NIC card in the lightning storm as well. It didn't solve the problem on that machine. I found another post on Amazon by a reviewer who said he is an Apple Certified System Administrator. His report was that the GA311 should work in Tiger 10.4 and later without a driver.

I've now tried the card in my G4 Sawtooth, similarly impaired by the storm, and after multiple, varied attempts to set it up with the Network preferences am unsuccessful. Network preferences recognized that the device was in the PCI slot and attempted to set it up. It just can't seem to complete the task.

Now I'm wondering if there may be some other related damage on the machine that would affect its ability to connect to the Internet. Does anyone have any ideas about that? What other components are part of that capability on the G4? Can I try replacing an additional component while also replacing the card?

Thanks for reading this post and sharing your feedback! I really want to get my wonderful G4 fully operational again. I have my new MacPro up and running now and its wonderful, but it won't run the majority of my Classic compatible software, like QuarkXpress 5, Flash 5, etc. I would like to continue having access to those programs.

Have you tried the other PCI slots?

I tried two of the slots and had the same result. As it turns out, on Monday I turned off power to all the internet router components and disconnected and reconnected wires to the hub and all the places the internet cable was connected. Then restarted the computer and returned to the Network pane and walked through the automatic setup steps once again. Afterwards when I launched Safari, it actually worked. I'm thrilled!

We had restarted the computer a few times when we tried it before, but had not turned off the router and such. I think that is what made the difference.

Thank you everyone for your posts and feedback. All of the information led me step by step down a path to the eventual resolution of the issue.

I appreciate the Apple Discussion Forums community. I always learn something and in almost every case get the answer I need or a lead to the answer.

"Let me know how that card works out and what you think of the MacPro."

I'm sitting here typing in the quiet of the night and the MacPro is practically silent. It's so quiet. Only a faint whirring can be heard.

I was most elated by the easy transfer of the data from the old G4 to the new MacPro during the setup. Saved me tons of time and work. Only disappointment is that I can't use Classic software that to be honest would still come in handy. InDesign can convert QXP 4.0 files and I often need to resave an archived 5.0 file back to 4.0 before I can use ID to convert it. It's a drawback for me not having that option on my machine. Same with Flash 5. Since I'm still learning Flash I find version 5 easier to deal with.

But I do like the MacPro. I think I'm taking speed hits with my non-universal software, but it's not a big deal. Eventually I'll be able to upgrade software.

BTW, thank you Derek for your intelligent suggestions about my post. I appreciate your time.

No problem. Thank you.

Glad you got the ethernet working; that's great news.

The MacPro "sounds" nice! Thanks for your opinion. I didn't know Classic was gone. I still use an OS9 program for work so I need Classic every now and then.

Now if I could solve my Airtunes problem I posted under Airport Express!?!

your ethernet card could be fried i have a spare if you need it 🙂. its in an old beige g3 i have