Is working on computers dangerous?

[nechronius]

A brand new Athlon cpu will overheat and shut down in a matter of seconds without a heat sink. In a moment of complete genius, curiosity got the better of me and I touched it immediately after it locked up. Damn those things are hot. And no, that is not my usual standard operating procedure. Maybe I was just looking for the pain.

I currently bear several fresh cuts on my hand after unplugging a molex power plug from the back of a CD-ROM. You know the story. It's wedged in there good. You get a good grip on the connector to work it loose. You wiggle and then yank. Next thing you know you bang your hand against any available sharp edge and you're cursing like a sailor. Funny thing is you KNOW you're going to bang your hand, but you weigh the bad (hands cut up) vs. the good (ditching a crap-*** 4x CD-ROM drive that won't read from CD-Rs).

I almost lost an eye once. I was pulling a standard 6 foot power cable out of a box. the power supply end of the cable was still in the box so I gave it a little tug. The cable end suddenly jerked free, swung in an arc directly at my face and in an instant it struck my right eyeglass lens, shattering it into numerous pieces. Fortunately the stayed together because of the frame, otherwise I KNOW I would be a one-eye.

[Rellik]

Originally posted by nechronius:
I currently bear several fresh cuts on my hand after unplugging a molex power plug from the back of a CD-ROM. You know the story. It's wedged in there good. You get a good grip on the connector to work it loose. You wiggle and then yank. Next thing you know you bang your hand against any available sharp edge and you're cursing like a sailor. Funny thing is you KNOW you're going to bang your hand, but you weigh the bad (hands cut up) vs. the good (ditching a crap-*** 4x CD-ROM drive that won't read from CD-Rs).

I hate it when that happens! those dang power connectors can be a real b!tch to pull out, but i can see why it's that way: to reduce the vibation causing the connector to slip out.

[Sandman72]

yes, yes they are dangerous. I have had my fair share of blood spilled and learned that machines will not run with out the magic smoke inside them. And once the magic smoke has been released there is no way to put it back in. Recently a friend of mine was building a pc. I was there and then there was the all familiar yelp! Aggh it bite me he screams...hahahahaha I was rolling. He was replacing a mother board and cpu in this box. While he is cussing I am laughing and explained to him that If someone were ripping your guts out you would bite too. He wasn't amused. I was

[fitzman]

Can't say that I've ever bled into a box. The most exciting event that has ever happened, was to one of my creations, a Velocity 4400 card overheated and burned out the mobo and power supply. I was only able to salvage the HD.

[Who Me]

Okay call me stupid. A user phones up and says my PC just died, so I go and take a look. Sure enough it was dead, tried the usual, have they pulled the power lead out of the monotor, no, turn it off and on, nothing, so I decide it needs looking at properly.

Take the machine back to the bench and on the way I'm thinking it feels a bit on the warm side. While I'm taking the screws out of the case I think, stik a screwdriver into the psu fan bit and see if it moves, well that hasn't been going round for a while!

Got the case of now and have a quick feel at the psu, well wthere go the fingerprints off two fingers. While I'm blowing on the fingers I'm taking a look at the cpu fan, never seen one look like that before so i have a closer look using the same two fingers and this time a thumb.........now as I'm about to grab the heatsink I'm thinking to myself, this is not the sort of thing a sane man should do......but who said I was sane.

By the time all this thinking had gone on I had a firm drip of the heatsink, luckily this didn't last long as the nerves of my fingers obviously work faster than my thoughts and imeadiatly told me that if I dont move my fingers imeadeatly they would become a permanant part of a heat sink.

At this point my reflexes decided that there was far to much thinking and stuff going on and took over. They yanked my fingers off the heatsink at a great rate of speed not allowing for the fact that my hand was in a confined space surounded by lots of sharp metal objects mainly an extremely poorly finnished case, the likes of which, if that Victor Kiam bloke hadn't bought Remington, you could have shaved with.

Ah well, at least that cute little nurse got to practise her needle work, and they told me that the impression of the heatsink on my fingers will eventually go away.

[nfawcett]

I once cut myself and I just used some butterfly stiches and wraped it up and continued to dink with the p.o.s.

[supatech]

It is nice that most atx case now have rolled edges. I have cut myself many time puch the blanks out of the case for the 5.25 and 3.5 . ouch

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

I think I've gotten more cuts from those blasted drive blanks than anything else. And they're usually just far enough back that you can't hit them with the butt end of a screwdriver, so you have to stick your fingers in and try to wiggle it back and forth as it tries to slice your fingers to ribbons.

[Jeff the Brit]

Those blanking plates I do left-handed ... got THICK pads of hard skin there from all those years of playing guitar!

[rebelj]

Computers Are Cannabals - They Will Eat Their Owners!


Between cars, computers and a hungry dryer (A dumb-a$$ thought he would see what happened if he plugged it in while my hand was in the fan - lost the feeling in a fingertip on that one ) .. I have more scars than I can count. The most common culprits are drive bay filler plates and the corners of power supplies.

Then there was the CPU power regulator that was failing .. I figured out what the problem was just before I cut the back of my hand on the case -- Dat sukka wuz HOT!

[ricco]

Relpaced an MB in a Tiny PC and had the diode for the sound board explode in my face.....Looked like a firework show for all of two seconds....PSU fault in the end.
I have a war wound where I was working on an AS/400 (The big old boys) and whilst strtching inside the case, caught my elbow and ripped a fair bit of skin off.....Nice and red...Better than the grey colour of them cases anyway...

[http://forums.windrivers.com/cgi-bin/forum1/noncgi]

I'm currently testing a power supply by running it with no fan cooling, inside a cardboard box, and exceeding the specs on it by nearly double....

It's past 70C so far, but is managing to hold a steady 12V. According to our compliance engineer, the capacitors will explode at around 105C....

[Manatheren]

I've always earned a little extra cash by building computers for my friends and neighbors. So I am always ordering CPU's and Ram, so when a neighbor of mine asked for me to order him a new CPU i did it no prob. I asked if he wanted me to install it, he said no. So I went about my business, and heard swearing next door, so I walked over in time to see this moron removing his old CPU with a pair of plyers, while it was still plugged in. Dumbass ripped off 1/2 the CPU, fried his entire system and was knocked over by the shock. Moron.

[jbar1]

I have to agree that the most dangerous aspect of computer repair and service is the damn cases. If I had a dollar for every cut I have received I could retire. Never had a chip blow on a MoBo with more than a little pop. Now some of the real old systems could really jolt you. These were before the encased power supplies. They used to have some healthy Caps that would store a couple thousand volts for weeks even after you unpluged them. Kinda like forgetting to bleed the High Voltage in a TV. We dont work on monitors but I dont mind them. I just hate the cases.

[smokewolf]

Not PC related....

But I learned the hard way to verify that the circuit is dead before trying to see if a dryer plug will fit into it's socket. This while holding the business end.