is this REALLY that safe

ok, im a student from england in college doin a network course, but im a little concerned about one of the teachers, he started taking out pci cards & configuring jumpers while the pc was on, he even removed the cmos battery to proove it wiped bios... he didnt electricute himself but on the other hand is this safe? i was told not to ever mess around with the motherboard while its on, but this was in the old AT days.... he also crushed a laser mouse in his hand because the cursor couldnt move :s... i just want feedback so i can provide evidence to the health and safety that he is putting himself and the class at great risk

Definately do NOT mess with computer inards while it is plugged in.

Other than the components inside the power supply it is safe for the instructor. Not a good plan for the computer. 12V probably won't hurt the instructor, a *lot* less than than can destroy the computer.

This man sounds disturbed. I would document everything, band together with the other students and report the situation to a dean at the school. I don't think it reflects well on the school to have an instructor acting one taco short of a combo platter.

Well I don't know if it's actually dangerous, but I've done just about everything short of taking out the CPU while a computer is on and I'm still here.

rseven said:

This man sounds disturbed. I would document everything, band together with the other students and report the situation to a dean at the school. I don't think it reflects well on the school to have an instructor acting one taco short of a combo platter.

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I like the analogy.

The furthest Ive ever gone was to unplug my hard drive power when it was on once. I wasnt even planning on doing it, I was just doing something, and I reached over and unplugged the thing. Man did I feel funny! It didnt worry me about the hard drive, I was worried what posessed me to do that!

Ive taken out and put in PCI cards, plugged in and unplugged drives and cables and played with fans while the PC was on.
RAM, CPU, and Jumpers i never touch. Not because it poses a risk to me, but to my system.
Nothing inside the majority of your pc can hurt you, you can only hurt it, by messing with RAM, CPU and Jumpers.

I have done some stuff with the PC on too, but I'm not an instructor. That's not what he should be showing students, nor should he be getting so frustrated with a simple mouse that he crushes it. These are signs of serious stress and poor impulse control. I would not want him teaching students if he is that on the edge.

I imagine that if he's done these things in your class, he's probably done it many times before, and if his computer IS still working then he probably knows what he's talking about. I know removing the battery and moving at least some of the jumpers on my (now dead) 8rda+ is perfectly safe while the computer is running.

as a general rule, however, it is a good idea to simply not mess with things while they're running, if only for the reason mortimer brought up: so many things can go wrong that'll hurt or break parts of your computer. That's not to say someone who knows exactly what they're doing can't do this, and if they can teach that level of knowledge to someone else then groovy, but the rule of thumb for the rest of us is, imho, "do not touch operating electronics."

I like to hear a full recount on the mousecrushing story though ^^