Bang! Pop!

written by Dan
Today’s comic Bang! Pop! is, sadly, a true story. The goal was to protect my old PC parts from getting fried. On my new PC I have a switch at the back to turn the whole thing off. If I want to protect from static I plug it in but leave it turned off then touch the case before touching any components.

So I did the same thing on my old PC. I switched it off and plugged it in. The switch was slightly different though and required me to use a pen to switch the tiny red toggle. Turns out, that the tiny red toggle wasn’t an off button but a switch that changes between Australian style power and US style Power.

Now, the big difference between US and Australian power is that US power is totally l4m3 gh3y-4ss. It’s, like, 125 volts. Australian is closer to 250 volts. (Note: I may not be using the correct terms. I’m not an electrician,... or in fact, even dedicated enough to do a quick check on the net,.. or turn around and look at the fried switch)

So I told the power box to expect 125v then plugged in into a 230 volt outlet. Of course, those extra 105 volts had to go somewhere and so most of them exited via the rear of the machine into my hand. I’m pessimistically hopeful that the remaining energy didn’t cruise through the motherboard, CPU and memory,...

The scary thing is that it didn’t even throw the jumpers in the fuse box, or even the little powerboard it was plugged into. Kind of glad about that, what with every other computer I own still plugged into it.
posted at 5:00 am Saturday April 23 2005