Lightning strike - laptop dead

[TwoDogsTwoCats2]

We had a thunderstorm yesterday, and a bolt of lightning hit about a "2-count" from the house. It caused the TV screen to go black, but the Vizio badge was still lit. I was watching TWiT on the Roku, so I switched input to check DirecTV, and still black. Turned TV off, then back on, and it came back to life.
That's the good news. I use 3 laptops on my desk, and my Surface Book is fine, as is my older 16" Vaio, but my Vaio SVF13N13CXB is totally dead.
The green light on the brick is on, and I tried another power cord on it, just in case, but nothing at the laptop. The charge indicator is not lit on the laptop. There are 2 ways to turn the laptop on, the power button, and an "assist" button. Neither of these cause any action. I've ordered a replacement laptop, already, but am wondering if I should be able to open this one up and see anything obvious. Or, is there a "path" that I can try to follow to see how far, if at all, power is getting in to the laptop.
Also, as a preventative question, what should I do to avoid this in the future? I have the laptops plugged in to an older APC surge protector, and the "Protection Working" light is on. I kind of thought that the brick would offer some sort of buffer, as well, but apparently, I thought wrong.
I'm open to suggestions on both of these issues, if anyone would like to offer them
Thanks!

 

[R_1]

the clamping speed, speed at which the surge protector stops power after detecting the surge, decreases over time.I wouldn't trust a surge protector after 18 months, they become power bars at that point.

also if you have the laptops stationary I would remove the battery when plugged in (after it's charged) this will reduce wear and tear on the cells

 

[TwoDogsTwoCats2]

the clamping speed, speed at which the surge protector stops power after detecting the surge, decreases over time.I wouldn't trust a surge protector after 18 months, they become power bars at that point.

also if you have the laptops stationary I would remove the battery when plugged in (after it's charged) this will reduce wear and tear on the cells

So, a new surge protector might be in order, it seems. I saw somewhere that a UPC might afford superior protection. Neither of these laptops have removable batteries, so I can't remove them, even though these are primarily used at my desk. The Vaio does have a setting that charges to about 80%, and states that this is to provide for the fact that I do stay plugged in most of the time (this is the one that's dead, but I found another of the same kind, as I like this model). I'm not sure about the Surface Book, and that type of setting.

So, your thoughts on the UPC vs just a surge protector would be welcome.

Thanks, again

 

[InvalidError]

If your laptop had any external peripherals with their own power supplies, LAN, coax or other connections, what killed the laptop may have been a surge induced between different grounds. For example, a laptop connected to a TV would create a large ground loop between the laptop's power adapter, the laptop, the cable to the TV, the TV coax, all the way to wherever the coax got grounded last.

For surge protection to be effective, all related equipment and their cables must share a common local ground so surges stop at the surge protector and common grounding point. The loop areas beyond the surge protector also need to be minimized to mitigate inductively coupled surges.

 

[R_1]

A UPS will offer better protection than any surge protector.

determine your load in watts, and APC has a calculator that will help you find the right size UPS for the load.

assuming 350Watts total draw and a runtime of 11 minutes with 30% reserved (for a future laptop if needed) means at least a 1000VA UPS

http/www.apc.com/us/en/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm

 

[InvalidError]

A UPS will offer better protection than any surge protector.

Affordable UPS have marginally better surge suppression than $10 brand-name power strips. You don't get any additional protection from lightning strikes since lightning strikes are over in tens of microseconds while UPS take milliseconds to switch to battery power - whatever surges the strike may have caused are over before the UPS ever knows they happened.

Also, an UPS cannot do anything against surges induced into wiring loops. (ex.: coax grounded at the power meter -> TV -> HDMI cable to PC -> power ground wire all the way back to the breaker box -> meter.)

 

[TwoDogsTwoCats2]

So, I will be purchasing a UPS, soon. What if I unplug the UPS when I leave the house, just in case there is a thunderstorm while I'm gone. With the laptops asleep while I'm gone, I wouldn't imagine that I'd need much potential in the , to trickle to them for the day (and, would that be an appropriate method?). I'll see if I can figure out what kind of draw that will take. I'm more interested in the protection factor than the backup, as these are laptops with their own batteries.

 

[InvalidError]

If you unplug the UPS, its inverter will run the UPS' battery down within two or three hours from internal power losses even with no external loads attached. A better and cheaper option would be to put your laptop in hibernation and turn off the power strip they are plugged into. If the laptop is connected to other stuff such as LAN cables, external display, tuner box/adapter, external storage, etc., you would need to unplug those too to prevent surges from entering through those additional paths.