I always cut my hands when building computers, last week i started to build my new Win7 PC (had to leave WinXP) and though this time i will be extremely careful not to cut myself... and all went fine... so i thought... suddenly i noticed something red on my right hand and i had once again managed to cut myself 😒 Next time i will be wearing boxing gloves, it's the only way to avoid getting hurt.

I always slice my fingers open on old cases, ususally without even feeling it - the first indication is seeing crimson fingerprints on something. That's one thing that modern PC's do a lot better!

I did get a shock from the power switch of an AT power supply many years ago, which was 240VAC (mains voltage in australia)- but luckily I was wearing rubber shoes.

Apart from that all the injuries are probably long term - radiation from sitting in front of a CRT monitor for too long in my youth, heavy metal poisoning from handling circuit boards and soldering... 🤣

I remember reading here on on another forum that someone took the metal cover off an AT tower case- one of the old one-piece, U shaped covers. They put it behind the upside down. They managed to stumble and landed on the case and got a huge gash on their arm, requiring many stitches.

Usualy i get cuts from cheap cases never on high quality ones like lian-li or chieftec.
The worst i got afair was from my Athlon XP 3200+ build (2004ish) i had to break out a metal piece so i could use the slot for a drive it left a really sharp corner where i cut my index finger.

Touched a solder joint connected to the power button on my old 486 a few years back and got a nice zap.

Instant blister from touching a red hot Intel DX4 100 Overdrive CPU many years ago.

Sore forearm from too much WoW back in the day.

Back issues + RSI 😀

Getting Old......

Usually my thumb and back of my hand/fingers get bruised by the back of the sound cards/ graphics cards / network cards etc. Those pointed parts are a real pain. Most of the time, I won't realize until I feel the sting from the bruises when I wash my hands, or feel the sting the next day.

The horror comes when you accidentally dropped a screw in between those cards. Even with a pincer, I get scratched in between the cards.

My right thumb has been almost permanently scratched, with constant peeling till now. It's only now it's being fully healed without rough or peeling skin.

You guys have mentioned most of mine...

My friends and I used to consider it "good luck", that it wasn't a good build unless you'd "donated" a little blood. 😉

Also, read somewhere once that the dust bunnies that develop inside old dirty computers are carcinogenic if you accidentally kick them into the air and inhale them. My response to that was "well, I'm royally fucked..."

Stiletto wrote:

You guys have mentioned most of mine...

My friends and I used to consider it "good luck", that it wasn't a good build unless you'd "donated" a little blood. 😉

Also, read somewhere once that the dust bunnies that develop inside old dirty computers are carcinogenic if you accidentally kick them into the air and inhale them. My response to that was "well, I'm royally fucked..."

I don't think it would surprise me at all knowing that every time I clean a machine that has a ton of dust I end up inhaling at least some of it, and it really feels like poison to my lungs

Nope, never. My other hobby - audiophile, that is - has never inflicted injuries either, despite loudspeakers are much heavier than typical PC.

I only once burned my finger on a soldering iron while making a covox. When I work on land I prefer not to use protective gloves to harden the skin, maybe that's the reason my computers do not cut me?

Compared to other hobbies, this one is the least traumatic for me. I got some bruises and prolongued joint/muscle pain doing aikido and countless scratches falling off bikes, yet digging inside PCs always leaves me unharmed.

The horror comes when you accidentally dropped a screw in between those cards. Even with a pincer, I get scratched in between the cards.

HDD magnet and a long screwdriver are your best friends 😀

I've had my fair share of cuts, bruises, scrapes, burns, smashed fingers, smashed toes, sore joints, broken/scratched fingernails, dust and/or smoke inhalation, all in the name of keeping my computer hobby alive and kicking. My mother used to know what I was doing when she saw my injuries (you've been messing around with that computer of yours again, haven't you?). My uncle, on the other hand, always managed to somehow keep himself unharmed - I guess I'm more of a risk taker 😅 . I really hated the old AT full tower cases - closing them up almost always meant either a cut or bruise somewhere. Even now I have minor cuts on 2 fingers of my right hand, the result of trying to refit a side panel that was wrongly inserted 😦

I don't really get injuries from working with computer/gaming stuff. I'm typically very careful and take precautions with everything I do. I think the worst I've done is blister my thumb once or twice from playing for hours on end straight with a controller as well as get hand/wrist cramps a couple times from using joysticks for more several hours straight. I've never cut myself from working with computer hardware, both new and old stuff.

I rarely game for more than two or three hours straight anymore unless I just got a new game and am having a ton of fun with it. :3

Nothing major but cuts, my last cut wasn't on an old AT era case but of all things a new modern case while building a DVR for class. Those cheap pos modern cases can be razor sharp, strangely I almost never get cut on retro gear.

It takes me longer to recover from a long playing session nowadays. Age of Empires II is especially hard on my hands and forearms. 😀

Amen brother! Me too 😀

I burst a blood vessel in the back of my hand when I was trying to wrestle out a stuck Molex connector from a hard drive. When the stuck connector finally gave my hand jerked brutally against an edge of the computer case. The back of my hand hit the sharp metal edge which resulted in tremendous pain and a burst blood vessel. I initially feared I had broken a small bone in my hand considering the brutal shock but It healed pretty well despite the initial pain and hematoma.

However the most common injury I get from my hobby is probably minor burns with the soldering iron. I usually shrug those off. Probably have some unfelt damage from exposure to toxic substances. Just today I breathed in vapors from a overheating PC UV lamp transformer. Nasty stuff...

As for actual gaming I get pain in my index if I play Diablo-like games for too long, usually over the course of several days of regular click-fest gaming. It only happens with those type of games it seems. A year or so ago I played Path of Exile alot and it got pretty bad...

My Packard Bell machine had so much bracing inside that I was constantly cutting and scraping my hands every time I had to go inside it for anything. I finally just said to hell with this and cut out most of the bracing that really wasn't needed and was only there to discourage you from upgrading it. I thought that was the worst case design ever until I opened my first Powermac 9500. Ouch!

I used to cut up my hands and fingers all the time working with older computer cases, often without even realizing it.

I have had lots of bruises and small cuts from PC cases that have sharp edges. I am also very impatient so I should really try and take my time building / tweaking these machines. That is also why I only have OEMs: turn on & play. I really dislike building machines. 😊

Worst thing I can think of was getting a DIP stuck into my fingers - yeesh!

Anymore with modern systems though, I don't tend to get the knicks and dings on my fingers or hands - the move to mostly plastic parts and rolled edges for metal casing is much appreciated. I've probably done more damage to newer cases/hardware than they've done to me. I still have nightmares about a clamshell/lift-up case coming down on my fingers like in the beginning of Christine, but I've never actually had one do that (doesn't stop me from jamming screwdrivers, pens, etc into the mechanisms to prevent it though!).

For reference, I used to have a BioStar that had a case that opened up like this:

In truth I never actually had any problems with it, and it was really easy to do upgrades on, but that hinged case still makes me feel uneasy just to look at... 🤐