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Comment by dontbenebby | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for this. I keep seeing FUD like such an event would wipe hard drives (which seems like a reach, but I'm not an electrical engineer).

What sorts of consumer electronics (if any) might be affected by a flare?

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All of them, if there’s no power grid.

That doesn't answer my question AND isn't even accurate.

(Ex: I could charge my tablet with an Anker solar charger I have and as long as the electronics hold up have access to the videos/music indefinitely)

If all of food/water/gas/electricity/fuel distribution is badly interrupted, there's the bigger picture.

You can grow or shoot food. I'm Appalachian, I know more than just how to code :)

We’re talking no power grid for months or years. Most portable electronics would be technically fine, but unable to operate for any significant period of time because of the lack of power.

Your best bet might be to stash a solar panel some place shielded, and then use that to charge the batteries after the CME has passed.

As i understand it people mistake two different phenomena for the same. The geomagnetic storm induced by coronal mass ejection of our Sun is dangerous for the power grid because it could fry its transformers, because basically the long distance transmission lines work like an antenna, amplifying that. But it is a slow and weak thing, so anything disconnected at the time should be ok.

The fear about disconnected electronics becoming fried comes from the Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse(NEMP). Which is a fast thing, inducing large spikes in a short amount of time, thereby frying transistors on-chip, if unshielded, even when disconnected.

> What sorts of consumer electronics (if any) might be affected by a flare?

* Old things (ie. pre 1990) - ie. before it was common to put protection diodes on every CMOS input.

* Analogue things designed to be very sensitive, particularly at longer wavelengths. FM/AM radio, ECG machines, microphone inputs...

* More modern things if a power cycle can't reset state.

This isn't true. Your electronics might be fried by a flare if they were in space, but the geomagnetic field changes due to a flare will not induce currents in any conductor shorter than several tens of kilometers. I think you are thinking of nuclear EMPs which could affect electronics?

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