A repair technician revived an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card that survived a lightning strike. The incident occurred when a photography studio's computers were hit by lightning due to a building lightning protection system failure. The strike sent tens of thousands of volts through the ground wire, causing a step voltage that burned two desktop PCs.
Technician uses water boiling and ultrasonic cleaning
The technician used a 'water boiling method' combined with ultrasonic cleaning to remove carbon residue from the card. The method proved successful, and the card was returned to the user for insurance and research purposes. According to the technician, it is very rare for a graphics card to survive such a strong high-voltage strike. At that level of lightning, hardware is usually punctured and scrapped.
The repair highlights the durability of the RTX 3070 under extreme conditions. While most hardware would be destroyed by a direct lightning strike, this card managed to function again after the specialized cleaning process. The technician noted that such a survival is uncommon in his repair career.
The technician has not confirmed whether the card is fully operational for gaming or other tasks. The card was salvaged for insurance documentation and further study, not necessarily for regular use.
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