Hopefully it's back at the store by now, and he put his screwdriver away.Originally Posted by Super Dave
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Hopefully it's back at the store by now, and he put his screwdriver away.
nope before i took it back I was looking at the unit for God knows how long trying to figure out if there was some sort of tiny switch on the circuit or somewhere and just couldn't figure it out. The only thing that happened once i tried turning it on was the speaker came on and just made a sort of ticking noise every time i pressed down the power button. Oh well just weird that it would have something so elaborate as a anti-tampering mechanism.
Maybe you have just been lucky? I said its uncommon but in theory it can happen.This is really an exageration... I have been building computers for who knows how long and never once have had issues with static.Yea, this makes sense. I dont think the average person realizes this can also happen with their computer.
Many people add more ram, etc without being properly grounded. I don't think its very common on computers but it still can happen.
+1, with the building computers comment, also i have been using a Case-less usb key for the past few months and have been pulling it out of my comp by the circiteboard and have actualy felt a few static shocks with no prob. dont ask why...This is really an exageration... I have been building computers for who knows how long and never once have had issues with static.Yea, this makes sense. I dont think the average person realizes this can also happen with their computer.
Many people add more ram, etc without being properly grounded. I don't think its very common on computers but it still can happen.
either way, sucks for the op. taking your detector apart for no apparent reason. if you wanted to see what the inside looked like there is plenty of pics floating around this forum.
Well, USB is low-voltage and to be honest one of the hardier forms of electronics (you can shove a USB key through a dryer cycle and most likely it'll live, not to mention that USB has overcurrent/short and overvoltage protection for all pins.
As far as static in a computer, most of the times you'll get lucky and not cause any serious damage if you discharge on a non-sensitive component on accident. Considering how much of a computer case is metal and how many "indestructible" capacitors and inductors are on the average mobo, this is probably 99% of the time.
However, try accidentally discharging on a stick of non-ECC RAM and do a memtest on it, and you'll soon realize static discharge is no joke as you go quietly returning the stick of RAM claiming "DOA".
Also, a lot of people don't realize what faulty hardware is. I don't know how many computer problems I've had to diagnose that seem software-related at first, but then is traced down to a bad hardware component, usually RAM but I've also seen video and various PCI peripherals often. One particular guy eventually admitted he tried to "hotplug" his PCI wireless card "just to see what happens" and got blue sparks..... I didn't bother telling him the kinds of voltages and amperages he could've touched on board.
Is it really worth that 1 in a million chance of frying your hardware or introducing a very difficult to detect defect in your computer by not simply touching the case before working on it??
P.S. Slightly unrelated but similar note, on modern computers always unplug it and wait 15 seconds before working on it. ACPI compliant mobos have to be able to supply power to several core subsystems on the motherboard even when the computer is shut off (usually the NIC, USB chipset, and sometimes certain PCI peripherals). There's no way from visually inspecting an off computer (other than hex dumping and disassembling the DSDT and OS ACPI drivers) to see whether or not you've got full live voltage running through certain parts of the motherboard.
To the OP, you were probably careless in your disassembly of your detector. From disassembly pics I've seen of some detectors around here, they seem ridiculously hard to work with and probably were only designed for their trained personnel to open. This isn't a desktop/laptop/iPod which has been virtually idiotproofed even on the insides. I would quietly return it and play dumb.
thankyou for taking the time to type that up,
NOT!
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