Removing/ Adding Periphials While The Computer Is On Dangerous?

[westy159]

I have always unplugged and inserted things like USB and PS/2 mice and keyboards, headphones and USB sticks while the computer is on without a problem and but yesterday my ICT teacher had a go at me for doing this and told me to leave the room with his last words being "the fool could of blown the motherboard".

I have never heard of a motherboard actually being blown by performing such an act as the one in question. Is this possible and was he right to send me out? He never told us that it could happen, really i was quite surprised when he said it.

[Justinian]

That seems kind of ridiculous ... it depends though, it might be a problem with older computers and OSes, but any modern or semi-modern computer is built to have USB and PS/2 stuff plugged in while it's runnin.

[Tostig]

Rule of Thumb: Information (Computer) Technology teachers know nothing about information, computers or technology.

Trust me, it's never let me down so far (and my mother's an ICT teacher !)

[Ulf]

that does seem rather odd. like Justinian said modern computers are made to have USB's and the like plugged into them while they're running. Hence my computer auto runs the program when I plug in my digital camera through USB. Mice and Keyboards I would probably shut down for as the bios probably likes to see those when it starts.

[danzig]

I have always unplugged and inserted things like USB and PS/2 mice and keyboards, headphones and USB sticks while the computer is on without a problem and but yesterday my ICT teacher had a go at me for doing this and told me to leave the room with his last words being "the fool could of blown the motherboard".

I have never heard of a motherboard actually being blown by performing such an act as the one in question. Is this possible and was he right to send me out? He never told us that it could happen, really i was quite surprised when he said it.

Unless you open the case and start pulling out ram or AGP, PCIE cards with the power on you arent at risk, your teacher is a moron

[Spiff]

Theres no danger i know of, when dealing with USB storage devices they recommend you "stop" the device before removing it, to prevent data corruption to the device itself, but otherwise i dont think theres any danger involved (ie with keyboards and such) to the motherboard or computer.

[westy159]

Well they are school computers funded by our great British government. All jokes aside though they are Windows XP that look like they are running on setups built for windows 98. The system limits the pupils from seeing any tech info but i would guess 1.6 Ghz CPUs, 256mb RAM

[Lee1026]

Well, after I disconnect the keyboard on my computer, the repeat key actions gets really slow. It might be a bug in the keyboard controller.

[krazykarl]

Technically, you are not supposed to unplug/plug PS2 peripherals while the system is running, but its more of an urban legend then anything else. They told me the same thing at my school, but I have done this thousands of times with no blown motherboards. USB is meant to be hotplug from the getgo so there is no risk there.

[Incinerate_IV]

Agreed, USB is ment for those kind of stuff. The only thing I'm not sure of is the USB memory sticks/camaras/mp3 players... I always click on "Safely remove USB device" before unpluging them, just in case.

[SweetDreamz]

For PS/2, for me at least, if I unplug it and plug it back in, it doesn't work. I have to restart the comp.. But there is no harm to the hardware in any shape or form by unplugging it while the comp. is on.

[Lee1026]

USB sticks, you should always safe remove USB device first. Because sometimes, the file have not really been written to the drive, but windows tells you that it has because it knows what its doing. (it is a rather complex matter of caching and all that Jazz.

[krazykarl]

I never do that, just unplug the stick, I have never had a problem. Ever.

[fatsheep]

I unplug and plug in mice, keyboards, usb memory sticks, printers, all kinds of stuff when the computer is on, always have - no problems. So I would say your ICT teacher is a nut.

[Lee1026]

I never do that, just unplug the stick, I have never had a problem. Ever.

Well, if you pull it 3 seconds after the transfer then you would have a 20% percent chance of it. That is my expenice so far.

[bdh]

Well, if you pull it 3 seconds after the transfer then you would have a 20% percent chance of it. That is my expenice so far.

Well, my USB has a little flashing light that goes on when its working. Would it still be operating even if the light wasn'y one?

[RZZZA]

You should put a potato in your teachers exhaust.

[Lee1026]

Well, my USB has a little flashing light that goes on when its working. Would it still be operating even if the light wasn'y one?

Sometimes, windows just drops it into the to-do list and worry about the other things that you ordered it to do. When you warn it that you were about to pull out the drive, then it bumps it out the proirty list

[alman9898]

There's a reason why USBs are called hotpluggable...

[Locky]

USB is hot pluggable, it isn't going to blow up, perhapes corrupt your data on a thumb drive, but i have many times yanked my MP3 player and USB storage device out, and no data corruption, PS/2 etc, doesn't matter either, honestly. The only thing you shouldn't attempt to remove/add from a computer whilst it is turned on, is it's internal components =P