Is it unsafe to rest tower on a carpeted floor?

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

What damages the body tissue is essentially not the current or voltage, but the heat generated from the current going through it.

lol
I hope you are joking, considering the links above.
I'm out of here. Good luck!

 

[xMax]

You guys are going way off man.

The initial post was a simple question, and now your all off trying to prove one another wrong.

Perhaps you should all make your lives easier and more relaxing by simply dropping the subject.

 

[Madwand1]

Well, we're here to discuss, correct, and learn. I found several interesting bits of information in this thread. Thanks all, for prodding, providing, screwing up, and getting corrected (which is also informative).

 

[JeffMD]

Errr... unless you have a VERY faulty power supply, there is no danger of getting electricuted by having the unit plugged in while working on the motherboard (remember, the only danger is if you open the power supply. NEVER open the power supply, most contain very large capacitors to help smooth power flow and these suckers remain charged with lethal amounts of power for a while after the unit is unplugged) . Also if you have your 120 volts pumping through your case, your motherboards is probably going to become a flaming fireball.

Also you can switch the main power switch on the power supply off to avoid accidently powering up the computer (not really dangerouse to you, as its just 5 and 12 volts, but none the less). And no, touching the case does not "ground" you if the power supply is unplugged.. so that dosnt work. ^^ Ground requires a path leading to (oddly enough) the ground.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: JeffMD
And no, touching the case does not "ground" you if the power supply is unplugged.. so that dosnt work. ^^ Ground requires a path leading to (oddly enough) the ground.

You keep missing the point!

I never said that touching the case will ground you. I said touching the case will bring the PC reference point (ground plane) and your body to the same voltage (potential).
That's what matters; the relative potential.

And I explained what ground plane was. The ground plane of the PC (or any printed circuit board) is not necessarily always at 0 Volts (Ground). It will be if you plug the PSU to the wall.

The main point I wanted to get across was that grounding the PC by any means like plugging the PSU to the wall will not guarantee that it will be protected against ESD as your body may still be charged by rubbing your foot on a carpet. Then, if you touch a sensitive component in the PC, you can still damage it even though the PC is grounded.

There is nothing special about ground. An analogy could be altitude. How high your position is depends on the point of reference. For example you can pick the sea level as the point of reference. Then anything above sea level will be positive and anything below it will be negative.

Now, you can say "Jumping from 2 feet altitude is always safe". Then, I will say "That is not necessarily true". You can jump into a well, whose bottom is at negative 30 feet, and break your neck even though you were at 0 when you jumped. The point is that altitude is relative (the same as voltage).

It is not enough to ground the PC. You will have to ground yourself too. But, even if neither the PC nor you is grounded, you will be safe as long as you both are at the same potential (you can safely jump from the top of a table to floor on the 20th floor of a building even though your altitude with respect to the sea level is really high but it does not matter because the 20th floor is not at the sea level either).

 

[Hauk]

As a kid I used to strip ends off a lamp cord and stick them in the goldfish bowl. The fish twitched real good! :evil:

I touched the ends a few times myself. What a rush. I'm still here though, stupid as ever.