What not to do when installing RAM

[Squeeky]

About 6 months ago my friend got into PC gaming. He liked the game counterstrike. He got a nice computer but didnt have enough RAM for a speedy puter. So i order him some RAM from crucial.com and go over to his house to help him s00p up the rig. I do the following

1.Take off the case
2.Take ram out of anti-static package
3.Go in to plug the puppy in
4.Touch my whole palm on the top bridge metal bar thing.

STOP!

Can you guess what i did wrong?
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Thats right, im missing a step. UNPLUG THE STUPID COMPUTER SQUEEKY!
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The lights flicker, and i feel a JOLT (best way i can describe it) and with the position i was in (kneeling on one knee) all i felt was like a rush of energy pushing me back. I flew about 7 feet into the adjacent wall. the lights flickered. I was ok, but what was really weird was i could here my heart beating. it scared the shit outta me. So i go to the emergency room. Doctor tells me this is normal, and that i should experience this for 2 days. It goes onf or 3 days.
Its called an "arythmic" heart beat. its so weird. needless to say it was funny when i look back on it. But the computer was alrgiht (surprising eh?). If you got any stupid stories like that, post em i'd love to here them =D

[SandTrout]

Wow, you almost diserve a Darwin Award...

[super0sonic]

i was replaceing the power sorce of a old 486 and there for had no 100% sure way to hook it up right. so after hooking it up and turning it on it shut off every light on the block untill i turnde the computer off agane. after doing that twice i got it hooked up right. the computer still runs today.

nice one squee....btw i pwn u at yahoo pool

[�io]

*Is thinkning of doing it too so he can hear his heart*

Originally posted by Dio
*Is thinkning of doing it too so he can hear his heart*

ill think ill stick w/ putting palm over the left side of my chest...but go ahead dio

[�io]

OK will do.

**proceeds to install RAM the "Squeeky" way**

*BZZZZTT!!!*

hello welcome to hell dio...

[Denali]

You guys are crazy.


denali

your hot

[Civilian]

Wow nice one Squeeky.

I can honestly say, I have never heard of this happening. Get well soon though

[Hamma]

[BLuE_ZeRO]

omg...

[Sputty]

It gets even worse with monitors. They can easily kill you. Someone did that once at my school. I didn't know them. Darwin is right though. Take off the warning labels and the herd will thin.

[WhiteSun]

This isn't RAM, but it's a couple of good electrocution stories...

It took me about a year to build my prototype after I started my business. It ran on 480V/3Ph/60Hz power. I transported it to the plant for testing on a dreary Saturday morning. My controls engineer was with me and we were dead set on debugging the control panel that day, come hell or high water. The morning went well but after lunch it started to drizzle.

Be it known that the power cord running to this thing was about the size of a man's forearm. Four wires, each one 1 ga. 480V, 3 phase. Lots of juice running into this box. We set up a tarp above the machine to keep us dry, but the floor was still wet.

As we were huddled up and inspecting some VFD's, I saw a small (12 ga.) wire hanging down that -=appeared=- to be a loose signal wire for one of our readouts.

"Hmm," I thought, "I'll just grab ahold of this wire and put it back in place. Signal voltage isn't much more live than a 9 volt battery."

Can you guess what happens next?

This was actually a spur off one of the hot legs that ran to the phase monitor. 480V. Wet hands, wet clothes, wet floor.

Zot.

"HOLY @#$%&@#*^ @#%^*@#*%^&@ #%$^&@#%^ @#%*^%*^*@%^ @#%$&^*@%^*%^& @%^*( @%^," was about the most intelligent thing I could say.

My controls engineer jumped back as I sunk to the floor.

"Are you alright?," he asked.

"Ughhh... uhnnnnn... gah... a...," my speech was very limited.

My arms hurt for days. This broke me from ever, EVER grabbing a loose wire again.

That was about Apr. 98 or so. And I trucked along fine with no electrocutions until July of 2002.

I was in Dallas, GA working on an installation of one of my machines. The company that bought mine had made some changes to the controls design. It now ran on 240V/3Ph/60Hz. Not quite as bad, but still a good bite if you grab it.

The phase monitor (I hate these things) was making me ill so I decided to remove it from the circuit and get it working before having to fark around for hours not knowing that the motors would turn.

This time the power cord was even bigger. Half the voltage == double the amps, right kids?

So I tripped the disconnect, opened the cabinet door, and began to get to work. I had intended to remove the wires coming OFF the disconnect instead of the ones coming INTO it. This would not have been problem if I hadn't had my head in my ASS and turned off the power at the transformer in the building first. But, the wires running INTO the disconnect were still quite hot and I proceeded to remove one of them.

The entire machine is stainless steel. The skid that everything mounts to, including the aluminum floor, is stainless. The control cabinet is stainless. And the machine is made to handle water treatment, so guess what... it's wet.

One of these hot legs decides to bend back towards the mounting plate for the control cabinet.

ZOT.

This thing arced hard enough to literally burn a 3" long line through a 1/4" piece of stainless steel. Electricity being what it is, it had to go somewhere else. And that was me.

My arms twisted up against my chest. I felt short of breath and stumbled back about 3 feet.

"HOLY @#$%&@#*^ @#%^*@#*%^&@ #%$^&@#%^ @#%*^%*^*@%^ @#%$&^*@%^*%^& @%^*( @%^," was about the most intelligent thing I could say.

At least the circuit breaker feeding the transformer popped at 60A.

The plant operator and one of our men came dashing over to the press as I stood there looking at the sky and trying to figure out why my arms weren't moving.

"Are you alright?," they asked.

"Ughhh... uhnnnnn... gah... a...," my speech was very limited.

My arms eventually started moving again about 30 minutes later. It felt like my biceps had contracted so hard that my bones were stressed. My chest hurt for about 2 days.

I have absolutely refused to work inside our control panels anymore. I am not an electrician, nor am I paid electrician's wages, so I am not taking the chance.

If you learn nothing else from this... Don't touch the hot leg.