what happens if i try to install a sound card while the pc is running...?

M

malicious

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Messages
4,772
what happens if i try to install a sound card while the pc is running...?

found new hardware?

or zap?
 
Um, I really don't know, but I don't think I'd try it.

My vote is for zap.


So, you gonna try it??
 
PCI cards (or the bus) are not designed to be hot-swappable. For a part to be hot swappable, its pins need to be designed so that the ground pins connect before data and especially before power. If not, *ZAP*. This is an oversimplification, but it should be enough motivation to NOT DO THAT.
 
Arcygenical said:
1 vote for DO IT.
Click to expand...

we need a good story for the holidays.

I can see the thread title now

"HELP I made a serious booboo"

DO IT!!!!!

seriously dont though

MASSTIGE FTW!!!!!!!
 
yeah... Don't be a pussy Mal!

:D

Please, don't do it... Or if you do, set up a video camera mmmk?
 
remember to tape the entire install, but remember to tape your expression after the install!!

Seriously dont do it, unless you wanna brighten up my holidays with laughter
 
i'm going to go against everyone's "seriously donts".

if you have to ask, just do it. nothing teach lessons better than real life experiences. when i was little i saw a shiny pot on the stove. naturally, i wanted to touch it and it's only been a few minutes being on the stove. mom didn't stop me, so i went ahead.

i aint doing that again.
 
A few months back someone installed a brand new video card while the computer was running. Nothing happened visually...but the card was permafried.
 
I'm going to venture and say that your hardware will almost certainly survive. The only one in question would be possibly the sound card, but even that I think it'll be fine. In all reality, I'd be willing to be that a worse case scenario would be a lockup. Best case would be nothing. How anticlimactic :(

But but but you didn't mention if it was actually pci or not. Maybe youre just testing all of us and you meant a usb sound card ;) and in that case you're going to end up taping it all and be like WHAT NOW BITCHES

yeah usb ones are hotswappable ;)
 
DON'T DO IT.

I've seen this done before when I worked at a computer shop. It's not pretty.
 
doing something like this fried my first 680i. dont do it. do you have a pc thats impossible to power off? why would you do something so potentialy damaging when you could just turn off your pc? or have you already done it and now are trying to figure out what happened?
 
I saw a tech get fired on the spot for inserting and removing customers PCI cards on powered up computers while they were in the shop for repair. He was older guy who thought he new everything.

None of those exhibited any problems but personally I wouldn't take the chance unless the mainboard was designed with hot-swappable slots.
 
If you do it, take video and then post it. I'm in need of a good laugh. So here is your plan of attack, order new parts, insert pci sound card, things explode, you start cursing up a storm, a few days later, new parts arrive. Cheers :D
 
man i'm glad i asked .. i was within an inch of sticking it in when i thought ... hum.. maybe i better ask the guys about this ..

i couldn't have been more painful then when i had a psu casing open to see the guts.. had it running.. leaned down to hear the fan noise.. and shocked MY FACE .. lol
 
malicious said:
man i'm glad i asked .. i was within an inch of sticking it in when i thought ... hum.. maybe i better ask the guys about this ..

i couldn't have been more painful then when i had a psu casing open to see the guts.. had it running.. leaned down to hear the fan noise.. and shocked MY FACE .. lol
Click to expand...

And yet you are 2[H]4U? :eek: I'm scared Davey :p
 
It can be done. Provided that a couple of conditions are met.

1.) The motherboard MUST support hot swapping PCI cards. This is something you will only find on workstation and server boards.
2.) The operating system must support this, or at least have software installed that will allow you to power down the slot, and make the change.

I've done this plenty of times on servers, but have yet to see this performed on a desktop computer.

It may be possible to do this while in Windows on a normal PC, but the problem is that if you get out of alignment in the slightest, then contacts that aren't supposed to make contact will make contact while there is power flowing through the slot. Remeber that when you are installing the card, you sometimes have to do it at an angle, or for whatever reason the card won't go down straight. This is ok when the power is off, and once seated properly, the card will be aligned correctly because of the way the slot is designed. If you fail to line things up perfectly this will cause a short at the very least, and probably fry the card, or the motherboard and possibly both.

Another caveat to doing the above is that the BIOS may need to assign resources to the card. If so, the card won't be initialized until the system is restarted anyway.

Why the hell are you wanting to do this anyway? Is it really that big a deal to power off the machine and install a piece of hardware?
 
Dan_D said:
Why the hell are you wanting to do this anyway? Is it really that big a deal to power off the machine and install a piece of hardware?
Click to expand...

Exactly!

<to OP>
WHY IN GODS NAME WOULD YOU THINK ITS OK TO STICK IT IN WITH THE PC RUNNING? Is it ok to stick your hand in a fan when its running?
 
i dont think it will break anything. it will probably auto shut down, and maybe you will ne to clear the bios.
 
chrisf6969 said:
Exactly!

<to OP>
WHY IN GODS NAME WOULD YOU THINK ITS OK TO STICK IT IN WITH THE PC RUNNING? Is it ok to stick your hand in a fan when its running?
Click to expand...

Well, in order to make your PSU quieter, you would stick a pen in the fan, right? :eek:

DO NOT DO THIS!
 
ok it was a stupid questions

stop with the DON"T DO ITS bec i already installed the card and didn't do it

lol
 
malicious said:
ok it was a stupid questions

stop with the DON"T DO ITS bec i already installed the card and didn't do it

lol
Click to expand...

Ok, wait, so you did install the card with the computer on and didn't take pictures? :(

or was it...

You turned off the pc and install the card? I'm so confused :(
 
chrisf6969 said:
Exactly!

<to OP>
WHY IN GODS NAME WOULD YOU THINK ITS OK TO STICK IT IN WITH THE PC RUNNING? Is it ok to stick your hand in a fan when its running?
Click to expand...

I've done both...

I stick my hands into fans all the time... just something fun about things you shouldnt do I guess... I have also unknowingly stuck PCI cards in and pulled them out wile the PC is running... I was trying to decide on locations for PCI cards on a new build, so I was puting them in and pulling them out... Then I went to turn it on... it was ALREADY ON! DOH! :confused: turn it off, make a quick visual check and smell, power it back on BEEP, bios posts, windows boots... no problems...
 
nhusby said:
I have also unknowingly stuck PCI cards in and pulled them out wile the PC is running... I was trying to decide on locations for PCI cards on a new build, so I was puting them in and pulling them out... Then I went to turn it on... it was ALREADY ON! DOH!
Click to expand...

Umm, how could the fact that the thing was on while you were doing this possibly escape you? Were you really, really drunk....or asleep?
 
digital_exhaust said:
Umm, how could the fact that the thing was on while you were doing this possibly escape you? Were you really, really drunk....or asleep?
Click to expand...

Perhaps he had no system fans in, all essential parts were water cooler with the radiator blocked by something so he couldnt see the fans on it and they were really quiet and there were no LED's on the system anywhere?

Or he was just caught up in thinking where he was going to put the cards and, while he might have noticed such give aways as fans on, LED's on, and other warning signs, they didn't actually register in his mind because he was thinking about something else.

I build systems for a living, probably done a few thousand systems in my life. Still, I spent 45 minutes diagnosing why a system wouldn't start one time when the problem was that the power cable was not plugged into the PSU, lol. I thought I had bought that brand new wireless PSU ;)

I have, as well, pulled pci, pci-e, pci-x, hard drives, floppy drives, dvd drives, power supplies, ram, and other misc. items from systems that were all powered up without noticing until after I had removed them. Always get that little rush right after like "oh shit... did I just kill it... oh no, wheew, that was close..." haha

Fucking up on accident makes the "sport" fun :cool:
 
protias said:
Ok, wait, so you did install the card with the computer on and didn't take pictures? :(

or was it...

You turned off the pc and install the card? I'm so confused :(
Click to expand...

decided it was a bad idea to try to with the computer on so i shut down and installed

i was just wondering if it was ok to try it or not.. and it's obviously not by the bazillion posts
;)
 
The one and only time I tried this was with an old P100 and a tape streamer board. One of the techs wanted to know if you could pull out a card with the power on & what would happen. Unluckly for me I was holding the card as a data line shorted to 5v, a signal wire started to glow red hot and the controller chip I was holding onto exploded.

I had a bad burn on my hand for a month after that so I would never ever suggest anyone try it unless the board is specifically designed to support adding and removing cards with the power on (aka a server board with PCI slot isolators).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top