Live wire touched case, shorting PC

[Will404]

Possibly, CM PSU's aren't the best but they aren't crap either. At least it works
Remember not to leave them in the open next time

That takes me back...
I had an old fan plugged into molex in my old pc, when I decided it needed some lights. So I took apart an old tec project, and wired the pcb into the molex plug (it was only providing it a couple too many volts.
Well it all worked, minus 4 or so of the LED's, so I thought that I would get a bit of solder, and make it skip over the bits of the PCB which were meant to control the flashing of the LED's. . All went to plan, and all the LED's went on, untill I moved the stick of solder, and shorted the molex connector , shorting the whole PSU. *I will note here that the PSU was a freebee, from a company I have never heard of *. Pop and off it went.
A bit later (after removing the PCB) I tried it again, it worked, so I covered the wires with a bit of tape, and the system now runs in my bothers room

[Lanky123]

I've been lucky with this sort of thing as well. I shorted a fan header trying to DIY a 2 pin to 3 pin connector (very badly, wont be trying that again ). It was a cheapo PSU from an old pc from PC World I think (second in one post lol), but it shut itself down and booted up fine a minute later after I turned it off & on at the wall.

Edit: Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea from this thread, a few people getting lucky does NOT mean it's a good idea to do anything equally silly/unsafe.

[Pleiades]

Wow I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a slightly, umm, lackadaisical attitude to Healthy & Safety guidelines as laid down by various august EU bodies hehe

[peterb]

I guess this again highlights the importance of using a reputable PSU. Although the 12 volt short posed no electrocution hazard at all, the current drawn by a short cct could have melted the insulation on the wires (I've seen it happen!) which would have caused more damage, and possibly a fire. Luckily the PSU had short cct protection and safely shut itself down.