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Thread ID: 56057	2005-03-26 02:11:00	Hot swapping	Mercury (1316)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
338163	2005-03-26 07:57:00	Well the reason I ask is that since the days of my first second hand computer - an XT, black with green text screen, 10Mb hard drive running DOS 3 - 16 years ago I have happily swapped things around, networked them, overloaded them etc etc and NEVER destroyed anything due to hot swapping items whilst the computers are running. Then a few years back I got ticked off by a boss for swapping a mouse. He assured me it causes damage. So I stopped doing it. Then others are equally convinced it won't cause damage. Who is right? A few weeks ago the fax died and I went for a multi-function replacement. As the fax/phone are on a separate line to the Internet (we're out of reach for jet-stream so use Ultra) I don't use the MFC for PC faxing or as a modem. I set it up as a network printer and printing works fine from all machines on the network. I used a parallel lead as there was one floating around and I still have the ink-jet on the USB (forgot to buy a new cable). But, no, scanning won't work through the network. It does work if connected as a local scanner. It will work as a network scanner if I buy the thing it's own network card and give it it's own IP address and the manual tells one in great detail how to do it. Or I go for the cheap method and try to remember to swap the leads before I turn the computers on. So this leads back to the original question: Which things can you not hot swap and why? If experts differ on mice and I've never caused damage through ignorance then what facts support not hot-swapping? Have people actually seen damage caused by it? Is it like not using cell-phones in petrol stations (a one in a million or so chance)?	Mercury (1316)
338164	2005-03-26 08:16:00	Well lets put it this way . Find out for yourself by doing it . I think enough people have explained what to do and what not to do . If u dont believe what people say, and u think u know better, we might as well not answer . And if u find that something doesnt work, coz u didnt listen, you only have yourself to blame . And the fact is, if u pull something out, if youre not meant to, it'll kill it eventually, / it'll stop working, end of story . . And earlier PC's compared to modern ones, probably didnt care whether u pulled something out while the system was running anyway . BUT these days, theyre more advanced, and will sooner or later something will fail, if you keep on pulling things out . When you're not meant to .	Speedy Gonzales (78)
338165	2005-03-26 08:38:00	Based on my own experience since 1981, I have hot swapped Parallel, Serial, PS2 and lately USB. Certainly USB and Ethernet are designed for hot-swap, but I have never destroyed or damaged any device. For years I ran a manual parallel printer switch-box, and that is the equivalent of a fast hot swap as it mechanically switches over. The precise answer probably lies with the design of each specific port as to how it tolerates it, and some hardware might be more prone than others. But I never found any that was a problem.	godfather (25)
338166	2005-03-26 13:02:00	Thanks Godfather, your experience mirrors mine. And Speedy, I didn't say I'm ignoring the advice as I have followed it -and ended up printing to the ink jet a couple of times this week rather than either shut down or hot swap. What I'm asking is Why? And which items are affected? Now mice - several times Press F1ers have said there was absolutely no reason why you couldn't swap them. Yet I just found this at Computer Hope (www.computerhope.com) : "Common ports that do not support hot swapping are: - AT Port - Parallel Port - PS/2 Port - Serial Port " Presumably this includes serial and PS2 mice. So no, I'm not ignoring advice, merely trying to extend my own knowledge.	Mercury (1316)
338167	2005-03-26 23:50:00	I have hot-swapped parallel printer ports for years with no problems, but caution is advised in hot-swapping PS/2 keyboards. I think a new motherboard died when I had it jury rigged on the bench for testing, had to forgotten to plug the keyboard in, and plugged it in with power on.. Anyway the keyboard port was dead it may have been due to hot plugging, I don't know. If you forget to plug in a PS/2 mouse Windows 98? will detect there is no mouse and say you can plug it in now. So I don't think there is any problem there either.	Terry Porritt (14)
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