Receiving an electric shock from mouse possible?

[okayjustin]

My mouse wire (or cable, or whatever..) is kind of messed up with the wire showing on the connection to the mouse and basically in the middle of the wire towards the USB connection to the CPU. It's the Apple mouse.. will I get an electric shock if I touch it while it's on? It's kind of sounds funny that I'd touch it but you know ..

I have electrical tape I don't know if that's necessary .. haha

 

[rgarjr]

nah you'll be okay, i guess. The USB is only 5V. You'll most likely end up shorting out that port if the 2 power wires touch.

 

[okayjustin]

The USB port? Which two power wires? Do you mean if the mouse connection end touches the middle wires (middle of the cable to the CPU) it's going to destroy the port I plug it into on my mbp? Sorry I'm just kind of confused

 

[rgarjr]

well the usb mouse has 4 wires, 2 of them being power. They are insulated but if they are scraped, they could touch each other and short.

 

[Gav2k]

Yes it is possible to get a shock from it. People have died from lower voltages. That said it's nothing to do with how many volts it's the amps that do it. If I can find the report there was a bloke that died from a 0.1 amp shock.

 

[okayjustin]

Oh man that is pretty serious. Maybe I should just be getting rid of this thing then .. I've been told two different things though?

 

[mchalebk]

It's not the volts or the amps, but the watts (volts x amps) that could harm you. USB does not have enough of either to pose any kind of hazard.

I doubt you would ever get a noticeable shock from touching USB power wires. However, it's not a good idea to leave them exposed. If something shorted out, you could possibly do some damage to the computer's USB interface (I suppose it's possible you could damage the mouse, but it's more likely you'd damage the source).

I would recommend wrapping the exposed wire with electrical tape. If there is more than one wire exposed, wrap the wires separately, being careful that any exposed wire not touch any other exposed wire.

 

[chrono1081]

Id get rid of it. You could short out the USB port. I've seen it only happen twice in my many years in IT but it has happened.

This is a perfect excuse to get a new magic mouse