will putting a magnet by a motherboard ruin it

**hobblehobble** · September 4th, 2007, 08:05 PM

i think someone purposely tried to harm my computer by putting a magnet by the ram and video card etc etc

will this damage it ??

**mjolnir1134** · September 4th, 2007, 11:11 PM

Yes.

**RamonGTP** · September 5th, 2007, 01:14 AM

Originally Posted by mjolnir1134

Yes.

why?

**JPMiller** · September 5th, 2007, 01:29 AM

Sorry but the Only thing that could be affected might possibly be the bios...
Beyond that, I dont see how it could do anything

**krotch** · September 5th, 2007, 11:35 AM

if it touches anything with permanent data or firmware it could get hurt. I dont know if ram has anything programmed onto a chip or if its just hardware controlled by the bios, but i think ram is just a dead chip so u should be ok. The video card might be fudged.

**Steve R Jones** · September 5th, 2007, 11:48 AM

Did they Open the case and insert a magnet?

**carl33p** · September 5th, 2007, 12:19 PM

Doubtful.
Even so, I would think the magnet would need to be quite strong.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,11...1/article.html

**nemowolf** · September 5th, 2007, 01:19 PM

what kinda magnet are we talking about here? The magnetic tip of a screw driver or the end of a wand powered by a huge electromagnet?

**paul9** · September 5th, 2007, 02:20 PM

Unless it is an insanely powerful magnet, then it will have no effect on the motherboard. It could screw up data and hardware on a floppy or hard disk, though.

**Theophylact** · September 5th, 2007, 02:34 PM

In ancient times, when IBM used ferrite core memory, a magnet could have disrupted it. Nowadays, though, RAM is semiconductor-based and unaffected by static magnetic fields. A high-strength EMP pulse would do the trick, though.