What happens if someone takes their video card out when the PC is running?

Question

My friend says nothing but I seem to think it's a bad idea and wouldn't do it.

Does anyone know for sure?

Answer 1

I've got a question for you,,,,, WHY WOULD YOU? any time you take a board out of a PC with it on you run a risk of damage. You don't want any kind of static charge and you should properly discharge yourself before handling anyhing within your computer.

Answer 2

It could crash the system. The video cable and the monitor are all independent of the machine and it will go on cranking if they are hooked up on not without any change.

I suppose if you aren't running any software then the video card won't be called upon to do much so the Operating System (OS) will remain stable, but if it tries to send data to the video card, like when a game is being run, then the lack of the card could make the computer crash.

Most modern video cards handle a lot of processing on the card itself, thus letting the CPU do something else. The bigger the processor and the more memory the better, but, unless you are playing high end games you don't need a great video card. Since the video card is handling most of the video processing then it can, in theory, be safely disengaged from the computer, but it is not advisable.

What I fear can happen is that the card is live with electricity running though it and playing with it, while charged, only increases the chance of damaging it. You could add static electricity to the card, you could touch a conductive part against another conductive part and create a short or you could throw off the computer. Computers are delicate creatures and they like a specific voltage running through them. When the voltage changes suddenly you put extra wear and tear on the equipment, often this won’t cause a problem, but it can and the older the machine is the more of a chance there is.

The voltage inside of a computer is DC and at a relatively low power, but if you touch the return bus you will get a nasty shock. I don’t think it will be strong enough to damage you (maybe a light burn at worst), but fooling around with electrical current is not very wise. AC current is Alternating Current, which switches between pole to pole. If you grab a hot AC cord you get a vibrating shock and because the current switches you nerves have a chance to pull away from the source. DC doesn’t have that switching from pole to pole and it can get your nerves stuck in large amounts. If that happens then you can’t let go and will continue to get shocked. It won’t be easy to make a mistake where you will get stuck inside the computer, but it would be easy to short out something, to get a shock, or to damage a semiconductor. If just one transistor blows out then you have a dead machine that needs to be replaced. It is impossible to trace down the transistor and replace it so the card or the motherboard will have to be replaced, and there is no system that will tell you where the fault is or even if one exists, but the fault will show up eventually and it will throw things off in a subtle way. It also increases the chance for additional short circuits thus more damage.

I would tell your friend, “Hey, you can get the shocks and you can take the risk of damaging something, but don’t pull the video card out of my machine when it is still running.”

Answer 3

first it would fry it most likely then you would not have any display at all and may even fry the motherboard. so be smart take it out with the pc off. oh yeah you can shock your self to by the way.

Answer 4

If you could pull it out without touching anything
MAYBE! But, why take that chance! You can drive a car 50 miles with your eyes closed, if you chose to. But, who would!

Answer 5

system lockup, nothing definate

possible: permanant damage to small portions (or large) of your RAM

possible: esd destroying the card, esd destroying the motherboard.

likely: nothing really except you two sitting around thinking about how exciting your experience was

Answer 6

not good idea, but if you did it would be fine until you run a program like a game and there wont be any graphics