[quote] Sweaty Chinese Man Electrocuted by Computer
A 20-year-old student in Shanghai, China, was electrocuted Monday when he opened his computer’s external case while the machine was still on, the Shanghai Daily reported.
The man, identified only by the common family name of Wu, had apparently opened his PC’s case to prevent its central processing chip from overheating — because he didn’t want to turn his air conditioning on.
His sweaty legs came into contact with the computer’s internal wiring, likely causing a short circuit.
According to the newspaper, which drew from a report in the Chinese-language Eastday.com, police and medical respondents found blood in the dead man’s nostrils and bruises on his legs.
The computer’s internal voltage can reach as high as 380 volts in power-storage capacitors, which is enough to give a deadly shock.
Powering down and unplugging the machine for a few minutes before opening it would have spared the man’s life. foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291543,00.html[/quote]
That’s a lot harder to do than one might think to get a lot of contact with the wiring/electrical components. His leg must have really been all over the logic board. what was he doing? humping it?
I adjust things on my SFC all the time, unplugged, but without waiting period (ie capacitator charge). Even so, I’ve never had to make much contact, and certainly not with exposed wiring, electrical contacts, etc.
Isn’t that 380v (power storage capacitors) inside the power supply unit? How the hell could he get his sweaty legs in touch with those? Removing the cover of the PC wouldn’t leave that area open.
I agree, if you didn’t crack open the power supply and fiddle with stuff in it there is not much in the case that you can actually get a shock from… almost everything is insulated. Seriously… unless he was kicking the crap out of his power supply there is almost no way to get a good shock out of a computer case. You might burn your fingers or what not on some hotter running parts but electric shock? Hard to imagine.
Yeah, I’ve also poked around frequently inside a running computer without being terribly careful. The highest voltage inside the case is 12v which is pretty hard to get electrocuted off of. Worst I’ve experienced is a slight zap. You certainly aren’t going to get arcing at that low of a voltage. In addition, the risk of fatal electric shock is mainly if the current goes across your heart. The most likely scenario for this to happen is if one lead goes to the right hand and the other to the left hand so the current goes across the chest. This article claims that the shock occurred in the legs, but the most likely scenario in that case is that the current travels down the leg and through the foot to ground. The chance of that being fatal is very slim. All in all the story just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
You have to have another look at a core component in that particular case . . . it was in Shanghai, presumably the pute was assembled there. God knows how that thing was wired, although we can presume it wasn’t done with any thought for safety.
Even low voltages can do very nice arcing, all you need is a somewhat stable high-current source that is not protected (current-limited or fused).
Not sure if the output of PC power supplies qualify but short-cutting a 12V industrial VRLA battery with a spanner does. I know because I tried. Not intentionally though.
The current doesn’t need to travel to ground, perhaps he touched one part with his leg and the other one with his hand, creating a path for the current across his chest / heart.
It’s possible if it was the AC mains input side, where you find the high-voltage capacitors that may be charged with a couple of hundred volt. If by some strange coincidence he managed to shortcut the two poles before the cap discharged, it can indeed deliver the required voltage and current to kill.
Couple of weeks ago I got zapped by my hair dryer because I touched both prongs of the AC plug immediately after unplugging it, but since I only used one hand I live to tell the tale.
What’s more likely is it was faulty wiring in the machine (PSU), or the plug so the case was live. Then by him touching it he became the route to ground for the power. Him being sweaty would have decreased his own resistance making the path to ground though him even better.
You should also remember China uses 240V AC like the UK, so you get a much bigger jolt than you do here.
[quote=“Rascal”]Not sure if the output of PC power supplies qualify but short-cutting a 12V industrial VRLA battery with a spanner does. I know because I tried. Not intentionally though.[/quote]A nail placed across a car battery will melt quite impressively.
I agree that there is nothing outside a PSU that would kill you, or at least I hope not. Wouldn’t the earth wire have protected him from any loose wiring ? [/sarcasm]
My guess … the guy was touching the case and got fried by lightning … there are no 380V capacitors on a mainboard I believe … it could be tho that he had no grounding on the computer and the electricity zapped through his sweaty legs to the ground … 220V will do
I think it’s a conspiracy. I suspect that the young man was a FLG true and faithful member, and he was being electrocuted, I mean persecuted, for his genuine beliefs.
Where are our FLG friends? Can we consult their wisdom on this matter?
Alternatively, I think it was a case of badly fried babies. He probably ate some that weren’t cooked that well leading to a potential charge which, in conjunction with the irregular Qi forces in his PC as he was leveling his World of Warcraft character to the 70th Level while flying his wyvern mount to the new space-time void, and together with the bad feng shui and lack of ventilation from his turned off AC, al these factors worked together to produce a half-ass spontaneous combustion that made it only look like he got fried by the mysterious over-powered and exposed PSU
I say since the guy didn’t want to pay for the air conditioning he decided to use the fan in his computer to cool him down. “Hey, I can cool my computer and myself at the same time!”
Unfortunately, he only had one fan in his computer and it was an intake fan. So he decided to move it out to the inside of the computer so that it would blow over the motherboard and out of the case towards him.
Also unfortunately, in order to do so he had to remove the power supply cover.
And finally - unfortunately the computer was still running when he did so.
