At 11:36 AM 4/10/99 , Changhsu Liu wrote:
>I was stupid that I had my computer on when I was connecting a SCSI CD-ROM
>to this PC. Nothing happened when I did it the first time. (I was changing
>jumper setup to see if it would work.) This time, when I was connecting the
>power and my connector barely touching the power connector in the back of
>the CD-ROM, I saw a flash and noise (like static in the night) from the
>power connector. My computer was shut down right away. I couldn't boot it
>anymore. After trying several times, I gave up and turn everything off from
>surge protector. I thought I either fried my CPU/motherboard or my
>powersupply went west.
>
>Miraculously, when I tried turning it on again 10 minutes later, it booted
>OK. Everything works fine so far. Just wonder what happened when it turned
>itself off. What parts would be damaged if something like this happens? I
>learn a big lesson NOT to connecting anything again when computer is on.
>Usually, I disconnect and connect external SCSI devices when the computer
>is on and nothing have happened so far. I guess it's more risky to do this
>on an internal device.
Did you damage your PC? The short answer is yes.
Any time you have an electrical arc, even just that little spark of
static electricity or that blue flash when you pull out a power cord while
the computer is running, you have a problem. Remember that many
of the components inside are filled with micro circuits: bios chips, cpu,
ram, motherboard, hard drive and so forth. Even a small static charge
set off inside the case is akin to lightning hitting your house and raging
through your electrical wiring. The wiring may seem okay, but your
circuits will have been weakened and you will have problems. The same
is true with your PC.
Is your PC ruined? Probably not, if you can get the system to post and
run. You probably tripped something in the power supply and after
it cooled the system came back on.
In the future, I highly recommend ALWAYS shutting off the power and
unplugging the power cord before working on a system, either internally
or even externally, such as plugging in SCSI, USB, Parallel devices. You
might be able to tinker around and not have a problem 3 out of 5 times...
or what ever odds you like. But, unless you are willing to spend the
money to replace burned out components because you are in a hurry to
save a few seconds or minutes... you should always... ALWAYS...
turn it off and unplug the system. Always be sure you have been grounded
to eliminate static discharge.
I am not without experience in this area. I have burned up at least two
hard drives and several CPUs from my own foolish need to save
a few seconds... it is always a stupid mistake.
Bob Wright
The NOSPIN Group, Inc
http://nospin.com - http://nospin.org
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