Magnetic Screwdrivers

[CybDude]

A friend of mine is having trouble getting a computer he recently built to run. I spent a while troubleshooting it, until I found out he had used a magnetic screw driver to put it together. I concluded this would have caused the malfunction. If you are wondering, the problem was that the system would restart when the WinXP installer would reach the ?Starting Windows? stage. I?m I correct in my assumption, and what if anything can me saved.

PS: This may or may not be related, but the BIOS would not detect the RPM of the CPU fan, so I just disabled the auto detect. Could this be related to the use of the magnetic screwdriver?

His Specs:

• MSI KT333
  AMD XP 2000 (I think)
  512 MB PC2700
  GeForce 4 Ti4400
  120GB ATA133

 

[IanthePez]

many many people on these forums use magnetice screwdrivers with no problems. I don't think it's related one bit. Time to start troubleshooting the hardware.

 

[ShowdOWN]

i have used a magnetic screwing driver to put together tons of systems daily. And I prefer to use one also. I dont think that this screwdriver has anything to do with the system not working correctly. Just install the basic components and double check all the connections again.

 

[Dufman]

the magnetic feild of the tip of a screwdriver is tiny, it wont damage anything.

 

[human2k]

Originally posted by: IanthePez
many many people on these forums use magnetice screwdrivers with no problems. I don't think it's related one bit. Time to start troubleshooting the hardware.

agreed.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: amdmang
the magnetic feild of the tip of a screwdriver is tiny, it wont damage anything.

VERY tiny...

EDIT: That is of course unless he was prodding the cpu with the tip or scraping the tip along the mobo. In whcih case i would have to call him a tart

 

[CraigRT]

I always use a magnetic screwdriver to build.. sucks when screws fall in behind the board and stuff. magnetic for life

 

[Bovinicus]

Unless he stabbed the bus lines with it or rubbed it all over his HDD, then I really doubt that is the problem.

 

[Wino]

Well.. the fan is a magnet too. Just make sure its working!

 

[Lord Evermore]

The only thing that could be damaged by even a strong magnetic field when unplugged from any power would be magnetic storage devices (though I suppose a capacitor could be damaged with a REALLY strong field, but I don't know enough electrical engineering to be certain of that), or possibly an erasure of the CMOS setup data since it's backed up by battery.

 

[kursplat]

i would like to see pics of the alleged screwdriver.... this thing might be a monster....3 phase power and a field that could change the tide chart........
but if not , don't worry about it.
i'm betting memory problems
good luck

 

[CZroe]

I try to avoid getting them near hard drives and such but nothing else should be affected.

There were some computers at school today that refused to boot to the hard drive at all during an XP installation, even though XP would copy files to it and restart to continue installation. This resulted in and endless loop for most of the students because installation would start over. We had to clear the CMOS by removing the battery and waiting. Damn faculty thinks good passwords make good neighbors or something so they protect their own misconfigurations! The library PCs have clocks that are WAY off (3-7 hours) and they restrict access within Windows to fix it!

 

[VBboy]

I'd still avoid using the magnetic-tip screwdriver on the hard drive or any magnetic media. If the magnet is strong enough, it can mess up your data "pretty good".

 

[VBboy]

Did he ground himself after using this magnetic screw-driver, to get rid of the magnetic field?

 

[CZroe]

Originally posted by: VBboy
I'd still avoid using the magnetic-tip screwdriver on the hard drive or any magnetic media. If the magnet is strong enough, it can mess up your data "pretty good".

I'm sure it affects it at any strength. According to my textbook, IDE drives are not meant to last more than 5 years due to the Earth's weak magnetic field erasing the track and sector markings. Too bad we can't LLF modern drives...

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: CZroeI'm sure it affects it at any strength. According to my textbook, IDE drives are not meant to last more than 5 years due to the Earth's weak magnetic field erasing the track and sector markings. Too bad we can't LLF modern drives...

Well, two points to make:

1. Simply reading and writing data back, sector by sector, would solve this Earth's magnetic field problem.
2. I'm not sure there is a problem to begin with, because the drive's insides are shielded by the metal casing. According to what I learned in physics, the charge should collect on the outside of the drive, then, and dissipate through the PC case. Unless I'm wrong

 

[Jhhnn]

Magnetic screwdrivers won't hurt your computer, although they will scramble floppy discs nicely if you doodle one around on the floppy casing.

A disc drive has much stronger electromagnets inside, and brushless fans have built in permanent magnets, along with rather strong electromagnetic fields.

Your problem sounds like a hdd problem, or data corruption on the xp disk or during the transfer.....

Use the hdd manufacturer's utility disk to zero out and test the drive, maybe new ide cables, maybe load an os from another disk just to see if his disk is corrupt...

 

[VBboy]

Originally posted by: Jhhnn
Magnetic screwdrivers won't hurt your computer, although they will scramble floppy discs nicely if you doodle one around on the floppy casing.

A disc drive has much stronger electromagnets inside, and brushless fans have built in permanent magnets, along with rather strong electromagnetic fields.

Right, but don't the two magnets inside the fan cancel out the magnetic field, so that the resulting magnetic field/force/flux is 0? Then again, I kind of took a nap in some of my classes...

 

[Sid59]

my two friends were helping each other putting in some hardware with a magnetic screwdriver. next thing they knew, the computer wouldn't post. Only post with a new mobo. Isolated case but i thought it would share.

 

[RPMK104]

i've used magnetic screwdrivers to build countless PCs and never experienced this problem b4. Its most likely a hardware config problem or something is lose...maybe the memory is not all the way in or the ide cable isn't in all the way....unless he didn't ground himself when building the PC

 

[Jeff7]

Depends on the screwdriver. It's likely that it is weak enough that it wouldn't cause data loss unless you were to get it REALLY close to the platters of a drive. But as for actually causing damage, it'd be more likely to cause damage by scratching components.
Of course, if the screwdriver tip is solid magnetized neodymium, THEN there might be a problem. OOh that'd be a cool screwdriver - finally would be a magnetized screwdriver strong enough to lift an entire computer case.

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: CybDude
PS: This may or may not be related, but the BIOS would not detect the RPM of the CPU fan, so I just disabled the auto detect. Could this be related to the use of the magnetic screwdriver?

Does the fan have 2 wires or 3? A 2 wire fan will not report rpm's. A 3 wire fan should...assuming it's not busted. And NO WAY is it related to a magnetic screwdriver!

<----- Been using magnetic screwdrivers in pc's for years.

 

[VBboy]

Now, don't you all forget that DROPPING a magnetic or non-magnetic screwdriver into a computer will cause it not to POST or even worse

 

[arcenite]

Originally posted by: human2k

Originally posted by: IanthePez
many many people on these forums use magnetice screwdrivers with no problems. I don't think it's related one bit. Time to start troubleshooting the hardware.

agreed.

Bill

 

[Alptraum]

I also agree that its most likely not the screwdriver. I have been using them for 10 years or more. While my personal use amounts to a fair number of machines if you really need convincing in the early 90s I worked at a comp manufacturer and assembled on average at least 40 PCs a day and sometimes 80+. If I didn't have one of those black and decker motorized screwdrivers with a pistol grip and a magnetized tip I probably would have shot myself. In the time I was there I probably assembled in the range of 8,000 or so PCs. We probably had under 10 dead hardware items that we couldn't diagnose the exact problem on.