Man Electrocuted by his PC

[temi]

A 20-year old student in Shanghai's Yangpu District perished after being "electrocuted by his computer." Reportedly, the man removed the external case from his desktop to prevent it from overheating in the non-air conditioned room, and when his legs came into contact with the innards, the resulting shock left him deceased. Initial investigations by local police confirmed that he was indeed electrocuted, yet there was no reason given as to why the individual refused to switch on the cooling system

SOURCE

[gkd_uk]

Lots of people think it is safe to open a PC and play around with it whilst it is powered on. This is an example to everyone, keep the panels on and don't fiddle around with your PC whilst it is switched on.

[temi]

I would have though any appliance with live over 200 volts going into it can be potentially dangerous

[gkd_uk]

I agree. I have seen people booting up their machines and adding additional hardware whilst the PC is powered on

[dhscott]

It's only 12 volts inside, but the voltage isn't what kills you I don't think. I can't remember my physics classes much!

The Power Supply however takes the 240 Volts AC and Converts it to 12 Volts (Or whatever it runs on) DC.

I got zapped once, fried my motherboard

[temi]

You are right Darren, the transformer reduces the voltage before its distributed to components inside... but, the fact remains that the transformer is in the PC and it accepts the full power from the live mains.... one should not mess with it, computer should be removed from wall socket before one work on it.

[gkd_uk]

You are right Darren, the transformer reduces the voltage before its distributed to components inside... but, the fact remains that the transformer is in the PC and it accepts the full power from the live mains.... one should not mess with it, computer should be removed from wall socket before one work on it.

I agree. I always switch my computer off and off at the mains before I decide to fix or upgrade.