When is it okay to touch the inside of a computer that is turned on?

by

You can also be interested in these:

Electricity turned out to be a major discovery for humankind as it has allowed us to power almost everything we use: from houses, cars, home appliances, machinery, to creating technology that helps us greatly in our day to day lives. Luckily for us, it powers up not only useful appliances and necessary devices, but also other means of entertainment like video games, arcade machines, tablets and computers. Our computers specifically, made in their entirety (or rather, most of its entirety) of electric parts and components, allows us to achieve such a wide range of actions and tasks only with just a few clicks and additional peripherals enhance our experience in many different ways. 



Said pieces need to be installed and removed, upgraded or replaced by us, or someone knowledgeable, in the event we needed reference of what is currently installed. While this may seem like a harmless thing to do, due to the fact we are dealing with electricity, with all its might and good charms, is in fact harmful to us in great amounts. For this very reason, even when you might be tempted to perform an exchange of hardware on a powered-on computer wondering when it is okay to touch the inside of a computer that is turned on, we actually and totally advise against it. Here are some grounds for our advice. 

It might not kill you 

We get it, you might be tempted to install that absolute gorgeous, new graphic card on your machine and test it out right ahead. Or you might want to unplug unused hardware. Whatever the reasoning behind wondering when it is okay to touch the inside of a computer that is turned on is, it can be a fast and straightforward method to get your intention done. However, the voltage running through the device will zap you, and not just any light zapping of your finger, it can zap you good depending on the voltage of your power supply, where you have it connected, if there are surge tendencies in your area, and so on. Since your first intention should be to keep yourself safe from any bodily harm while you perform the replacing or removal of the hardware, turning off the computer is the sanest measure to achieve this.

Make sure you turn off and disconnect your computer before opening it.

Fiddling with your computer while it is on might not be fatal or represent a major risk in most cases. However, depending on the circumstances, the electric shock you may receive from your power supply could kill you if you are dealing with a faulty unit with a bad ground connection.

Your device is at risk 

We understand some people might not have a very high regard of their bodily safety, maybe due to a considerable electricity resistance (mostly because of the right conditions met when exposed to electrical currents) and therefore might not have experience or received the full shock of it, yet even when you might not care for being shocked lightly -or greatly- you might consider the integrity of your computer parts. Your equipment holds electricity already and is exposed to it when turned on. All of its components work relying on the flow of electric charges within the cables expertly placed to drive and conduct it from one part to another without causing any interference with and to outside forces.  

While your sole touch might not harm any or all parts connected, the static electricity generated, conducted or attracted from it will most certainly do a number on anything it reaches, while you are thinking about when is it okay to touch the inside of a computer that is turned on. You may think a small shock shouldn’t be that damaging to a durable equipment that was designed to withstand raw electric currents through its core, but the added charge of static from the environment, and depending on how strong the charge is, the part can very well get short circuited with any little zap of misplaced energy coming from your finger. 

All hardware components are at risk when repairing while the PC is on

We know how heartbreaking it can be to have a newly set up computer that just failed on you due to an error, a faulty hardware or a surge going wrong and through your power supply’s protector. Now imagine this same scenario but the cause of it is static wrongly delivered to an innocent piece of hardware in the way of your static charged fingers. 

The only and almost unique condition that should be met when touching or swapping any piece of hardware out of your device is that this component needs to be hot swappable. This means that the intended piece you will be plugging in or out to remove, upgrade or add is designed in a way that can be manipulated whether the unit is on or not. Hot swappable is only a formality for some devices that do not need a system restart or to have the computer turned off to function. Additionally, even when your equipment part is hot swappable, that does not mean you will be spared from charging static to surrounding devices if some measures are not taken into consideration. 

What to do if you don’t want to turn the computer off

Certainly, there are ways to prevent this from happening in the first place, and because we understand sometimes, some tests and set ups might require you -in the very rare occasion- to leave the computer on while you perform them, we will provide a couple of methods to know when is it okay to touch the inside of a computer that is turned on. We still strongly advise against doing this altogether if you have the chance, time and sensibility, as many tests and upgrades should and must be performed with the whole device turned completely off for you to proceed. 

In the very rare occasion, you decide to foolishly leave your computer on in order to touch or replace anything inside it, for whatever god forsaken reason, the first thing you will need to do is to avoid creating or transmitting any static to the machine. Wearing rubber shoes and tapping the outside of the case on the CPU will mostly discharge any static from your hands and body, and if you move away from the device, tap on the case again before touching anything else inside of it just to prevent it from getting any newly generated static current from your walk.

More stories like this