plugged in a pci card while pc was running @ work

[i12bina3]

i was working at a P/// 500 and i had to install a network card
i wasnt paying lots of attention to the machine and there was too much noice to hear the pc running
so i putted the card in while the pc was still running
win98 didnt even crash !!!
i couldnt shut down ... got errors
so i removed the power cable and rebooted
it worked no probz ... could have been worse
anybody did the same thing?

[eobard]

Lost a video card looooong ago, CGA. I had my "new" 286 upgrade in a computer store getting set up with my old XT peripherals and the guy took out the cga card with the power still on, killed the card. Wasn't fun.

[Mr B]

I've never done anything with the machine running....but there has been a couple of times on an ATX format rig, that I've tried to clear the CMOS without disconnecting the power cord first...lol.

Fortunately, I didn't fry the boards...lol *whew*

There was a thread here a long while ago....Jeff Evans (dimmreaper) found out that unlike USB peripherials, SDRAM isn't hot-swappable.... :p

[eobard]

I've done the "Let's remove peripheral cards while the motherboard LED is still lit up! It's fun!!!" thing often, fortunately no destruction yet! :)

[Jeff Bolton]

the other day i plugged in my speakers into my sound card when an mp3 was playing and the whole system froze...scared the crap out of me. i had to reset the cmos and everything was fine, breath of fresh air for me. thought i fried something.

jeff

[FerrariF50]

I have never put in a pci or Isa card when the computer was running....But I'm surpized it did not crash....

[Krusty]

Originally posted by i12bina3
i was working at a P/// 500 and i had to install a network card
i wasnt paying lots of attention to the machine and there was too much noice to hear the pc running
so i putted the card in while the pc was still running
win98 didnt even crash !!!
i couldnt shut down ... got errors
so i removed the power cable and rebooted
it worked no probz ... could have been worse
anybody did the same thing?

You are one lucky SOB! I would NEVER do that, no matter how much noise or how much distraction there was. A couple months ago, my dad called me up asking to come fix the computer. He tried taking his geforce2 gts out to put in a crappy matrox card that had two monitor connections but didn't disconnect the psu.

He completely fried the motherboard. Good thing he had a dell. Got it replaced for free. And now he said he is never touching a computer again. Always gonna call me instead...

[FerrariF50]

I never disconect the Power Supply when changeing pci cards or anything like that....Never had a blown mobo.

[-=HN=- Wild9]

i have flipped the breaker in alot of psu's when plugging up a hd or cdrom or fan while the comp was on. luckily though i never blew anything up doing that.

[Krusty]

Originally posted by FerrariF50
I never disconect the Power Supply when changeing pci cards or anything like that....Never had a blown mobo.

There have been a few times I haven't disconnected the power either, but a while ago, I read an article that mentioned if you are a little off when inserting the card, you could accidently connect a couple things that shouldn't be connected by poking the motherboard with the metal backing for the cards. The article I read involved the asus a7m266 motherboard with agp cards, but I'm sure it is like this on a lot of other boards too.

As long as you are steady enough not to bump the motherboard on the way in, you should be all good. I'd prefer, however, to be safe.

[Intraveinous]

Originally posted by FerrariF50
I never disconect the Power Supply when changeing pci cards or anything like that....Never had a blown mobo.

Nor have I... In fact, I've never even heard that you need to... I've been working on systems for about 14 years and have never unplugged the PSU from the board for fear of shorting something... hundreds of cards in and out, never a problem. As far as inserting/removing things while system is running, Floppys are OK, I know this for a fact, as for everything else, I wouldn't recommend it. I've done card swaps on RS/6000 machines while they were running before, but that was after issueing a 'hot swap' command to the slot which locks it from activity and powers it down independant of the rest of the server. It's pretty impressive... Have a lil LED next to each slot that tells if it's powered or not.
Peace
John

[TJ9]

I have broken a motherboard and fried a stick of RAM.

Also I was messing around with my fan wireing and crossed two of the wronge wires while the system was running. This caused a imediate shut down. Although it appears to still work alright after I flicked the power buttons a few times.:)

[LiquidPenguin]

Originally posted by Intraveinous


[SNIP]
I've done card swaps on RS/6000 machines while they were running before, but that was after issueing a 'hot swap' command to the slot which locks it from activity and powers it down independant of the rest of the server. It's pretty impressive... Have a lil LED next to each slot that tells if it's powered or not.


I used to work at HP where I built those big beasties. When the big boss wasn't looking I would play with the servers and such. The "Hot swap" slots had to be the most interesting thing I've ever played with (right below the 4x Xeon Servers w/ multiple 6+GB RAM daughter boards.) Oi, I wish I still worked there. I loved playing around with those servers. :(

and no . . . I wasn't let go because I played with those servers.

[dugans]

Fried my old geforce ultra a few months ago- adding a fan. The custom bracket I was mount slipped and shut the pc down!

Video card took the hit, everything else is fine.