{"video_id":"J4OUucCT7MM","title":"What If You Pull Your CPU Out While The PC Is On?","channel":"Techquickie","show":"Techquickie","published_at":"2024-05-04T14:58:16Z","duration_s":414,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":3.08,"text":"What happens if you just start removing components","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":3.08,"end_s":7.08,"text":"from your computer while it's running? I mean, I don't know why you would,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":7.08,"end_s":10.24,"text":"but you had a sick enough fascination to start watching this video,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":10.24,"end_s":13.6,"text":"so let's dive right into the answers. First, let's talk about what happens","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":13.6,"end_s":17.2,"text":"if you pull out your CPU, the brain of the computer.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":17.2,"end_s":21.12,"text":"Naturally, your computer would just shut down, kind of like you would.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.12,"end_s":24.44,"text":"Technically speaking though, the rest of your computer normally exists","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":24.44,"end_s":28.88,"text":"in a power off state, which is altered by the presence of a CPU,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":28.88,"end_s":33.04,"text":"kind of like a dead man's switch. So if there's no CPU,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":33.04,"end_s":36.92,"text":"the system will just revert to its natural state of being off.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":36.92,"end_s":40.24,"text":"That said, removing a CPU while your computer is running","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":40.24,"end_s":45.24,"text":"can still be hard on your components. For starters, a modern CPU socket is only rated","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":45.24,"end_s":48.6,"text":"for around 10 insertions, even while everything's turned off.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":48.6,"end_s":52.84,"text":"So you'd be burning one of those just to conduct a weird experiment.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.84,"end_s":57.04,"text":"Then you have the fact that your PC expects a specific electrical resistance","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":57.04,"end_s":60.72,"text":"which comes from the CPU socket actually having a CPU in it.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":60.72,"end_s":66.4,"text":"So suddenly yanking it out while the PC is on can, unsurprisingly, cause electrical damage.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":66.4,"end_s":69.92,"text":"Heck, even just wiggling the heat sink can do this if you're too rough with it.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":69.92,"end_s":74.28,"text":"And that's cool to know, but some of your PC parts that are less sexy","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":74.28,"end_s":79.32,"text":"than the CPU actually have more interesting ramifications when you mess with them,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":79.32,"end_s":84.52,"text":"namely the RAM. Since RAM contains what your computer is working on,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":84.52,"end_s":89.96,"text":"essentially what it's thinking about at any given time, pulling a RAM stick would quickly cause your system","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":89.96,"end_s":94.4,"text":"to freeze, necessitating a restart. The technical cause of this freezing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":94.4,"end_s":99.52,"text":"is slightly different depending on RAM generation. If you're using newer DDR5 memory,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":99.52,"end_s":102.92,"text":"the system can tell something has gone catastrophically wrong","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":102.92,"end_s":106.4,"text":"and just stop itself from trying to continue to execute any programs.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":106.4,"end_s":110.48,"text":"It's time to stop. Previous standards like DDR4, though,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":110.48,"end_s":115.24,"text":"don't have the same kind of error detection. If you remove a stick of DDR4,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":115.24,"end_s":118.56,"text":"the memory controller on the CPU won't get a response","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":118.56,"end_s":123.8,"text":"when it tries to send a signal to RAM, meaning the CPU will end up not knowing what to do next.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":123.8,"end_s":128.72,"text":"There's a list, the list is gone, I don't know. But interestingly, some systems can keep running fine","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":128.72,"end_s":135.44,"text":"if the RAM is removed or catastrophically fails. It's not uncommon for servers to support memory mirroring","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":135.44,"end_s":140.12,"text":"in which data is stored on backup RAM sticks and some specialized operating systems","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":140.16,"end_s":144.44,"text":"even store critical data in the CPU's cache rather than in RAM.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":144.44,"end_s":150.32,"text":"So in applications like medical and military equipment, the overall system can keep functioning without RAM,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":150.32,"end_s":154.52,"text":"but you won't see this capability on a home PC. Instead, there's a good chance","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":154.52,"end_s":157.68,"text":"that after you pull a RAM stick and your system hard crashes,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":157.68,"end_s":162.04,"text":"you'll see artifacts on your screen or some kind of weird afterimage, spooky.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":162.04,"end_s":166.72,"text":"This can often happen if you're using your processor's integrated graphics as the IGPU","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":166.72,"end_s":172.12,"text":"uses part of your system RAM as video memory. The IGPU will read each of the two RAM channels","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":172.12,"end_s":176.0,"text":"your computer likely has separately. So if you remove a single stick,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":176.0,"end_s":181.76,"text":"you might end up seeing some of what it was reading from one channel before you decided to go all mad scientists.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":181.76,"end_s":186.16,"text":"But what if you remove your SSD or, God forbid, your GPU?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":186.16,"end_s":191.12,"text":"If you remove an SSD or hard drive, what happens will depend on what kind of connection","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":191.12,"end_s":195.52,"text":"the drive was using and whether or not it was the drive you have your operating system installed on.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":195.52,"end_s":199.0,"text":"Removing a non-OS drive typically isn't a big deal,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":199.0,"end_s":202.04,"text":"though you run the risk of data corruption or loss","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":202.04,"end_s":206.04,"text":"if the drive was in the middle of writing something. If you pull your OS drive though,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":206.04,"end_s":209.44,"text":"you're gonna be looking at a blue screen of death if you're running Windows.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":209.44,"end_s":215.28,"text":"Even though an operating system can technically run just in your RAM, Windows is frequently reading","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":215.28,"end_s":220.48,"text":"and writing to and from your main storage drive. And if the OS detects that the drive is no longer there,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":220.48,"end_s":225.0,"text":"it will just send a signal to give you a blue screen and bring everything to a halt as punishment.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":225.0,"end_s":228.96,"text":"What were you thinking? What are you doing? Funnily enough, Linux is a little better","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":228.96,"end_s":234.16,"text":"at handling drive removals or failures and can be more easily run just from RAM,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":234.16,"end_s":238.68,"text":"which makes sense considering Linux is a very popular server operating system,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":238.68,"end_s":242.96,"text":"an environment where you want as much uptime as possible, even if a drive fails.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":242.96,"end_s":246.32,"text":"Then there's the physical consequences of removing a drive.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":246.32,"end_s":251.36,"text":"SATA and the less common U.2 are physically designed for hot-swapping,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":251.36,"end_s":256.0,"text":"but M.2 connectors aren't. So each time you pull out an M.2 drive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":256.0,"end_s":260.16,"text":"while the computer is running, you run a greater chance of causing electrical damage","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":260.16,"end_s":264.36,"text":"to a sensitive connector that's already only rated for 60 insertions, so don't do it.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":264.36,"end_s":268.6,"text":"It's sensitive. Now, let's get to what happens if you pull out a graphics card.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":268.6,"end_s":272.36,"text":"GPUs aren't as critical for fundamental system operation","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":272.36,"end_s":276.2,"text":"as the other three components we've discussed, so can your system keep running","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":276.2,"end_s":279.44,"text":"if you just suddenly yeet your GPU out of its slot?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":279.44,"end_s":284.0,"text":"Well, it depends. If you then plug your monitor into the video port","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":284.0,"end_s":289.32,"text":"on your motherboard and try and use your integrated graphics, your system might just keep running fine","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":289.32,"end_s":293.56,"text":"and give you one of those, your graphics driver stopped responding and recovered messages.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":293.56,"end_s":297.0,"text":"Or you could try this key combo, if something doesn't look right,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":297.0,"end_s":300.44,"text":"which manually tells the system to restart your graphics driver.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":300.44,"end_s":307.24,"text":"However, the low-level portions of your graphics driver likely aren't coded to expect the sudden removal of a GPU,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":307.24,"end_s":311.2,"text":"meaning the driver might tell your operating system to just throw up a blue screen instead.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":311.2,"end_s":315.16,"text":"When in doubt, blue screen. Although Linux can handle GPU removal better,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":315.16,"end_s":318.2,"text":"Microsoft has tried to slim down Windows code base,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":318.2,"end_s":323.4,"text":"and it simply wasn't important for them to add support for recovering from someone yanking out the GPU","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":323.4,"end_s":326.88,"text":"while the computer is on, because how many people are doing that and what's wrong with them?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":326.88,"end_s":331.16,"text":"But interestingly, Windows is good at dealing with GPU removal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":331.16,"end_s":336.52,"text":"if you're just disconnecting a modern Thunderbolt cable that's being used by an external GPU enclosure,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":336.52,"end_s":340.4,"text":"as it wouldn't make much sense for Microsoft to allow your system to blue screen,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":340.4,"end_s":343.72,"text":"just because you pulled out a cable designed to be hot swapped.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":343.72,"end_s":348.84,"text":"But please, don't yank your card out of its slot. I mean, even huge YouTube operations","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":348.84,"end_s":352.28,"text":"that benchmark dozens of cards, turn off their test benches first.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":352.28,"end_s":355.4,"text":"And I didn't say you were supposed to watch this whole video, but here you are.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":355.4,"end_s":358.84,"text":"Nice to see ya. Hey, thanks for watching the video. Like it if you liked it.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":358.84,"end_s":363.04,"text":"Dislike it if you disliked it. Check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":363.04,"end_s":367.04,"text":"And hey, don't forget to subscribe and follow. You're not supposed to do any of that stuff,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":367.04,"end_s":368.48,"text":"but, you know.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"What happens if you just start removing components from your computer while it's running? I mean, I don't know why you would, but you had a sick enough fascination to start watching this video, so let's dive right into the answers. First, let's talk about what happens if you pull out your CPU, the brain of the computer. Naturally, your computer would just shut down, kind of like you would. Technically speaking though, the rest of your computer normally exists in a power off state, which is altered by the presence of a CPU, kind of like a dead man's switch. So if there's no CPU, the system will just revert to its natural state of being off. That said, removing a CPU while your computer is running can still be hard on your components. For starters, a modern CPU socket is only rated for around 10 insertions, even while everything's turned off. So you'd be burning one of those just to conduct a weird experiment. Then you have the fact that your PC expects a specific electrical resistance which comes from the CPU socket actually having a CPU in it. So suddenly yanking it out while the PC is on can, unsurprisingly, cause electrical damage. Heck, even just wiggling the heat sink can do this if you're too rough with it. And that's cool to know, but some of your PC parts that are less sexy than the CPU actually have more interesting ramifications when you mess with them, namely the RAM. Since RAM contains what your computer is working on, essentially what it's thinking about at any given time, pulling a RAM stick would quickly cause your system to freeze, necessitating a restart. The technical cause of this freezing is slightly different depending on RAM generation. If you're using newer DDR5 memory, the system can tell something has gone catastrophically wrong and just stop itself from trying to continue to execute any programs. It's time to stop. Previous standards like DDR4, though, don't have the same kind of error detection. If you remove a stick of DDR4, the memory controller on the CPU won't get a response when it tries to send a signal to RAM, meaning the CPU will end up not knowing what to do next. There's a list, the list is gone, I don't know. But interestingly, some systems can keep running fine if the RAM is removed or catastrophically fails. It's not uncommon for servers to support memory mirroring in which data is stored on backup RAM sticks and some specialized operating systems even store critical data in the CPU's cache rather than in RAM. So in applications like medical and military equipment, the overall system can keep functioning without RAM, but you won't see this capability on a home PC. Instead, there's a good chance that after you pull a RAM stick and your system hard crashes, you'll see artifacts on your screen or some kind of weird afterimage, spooky. This can often happen if you're using your processor's integrated graphics as the IGPU uses part of your system RAM as video memory. The IGPU will read each of the two RAM channels your computer likely has separately. So if you remove a single stick, you might end up seeing some of what it was reading from one channel before you decided to go all mad scientists. But what if you remove your SSD or, God forbid, your GPU? If you remove an SSD or hard drive, what happens will depend on what kind of connection the drive was using and whether or not it was the drive you have your operating system installed on. Removing a non-OS drive typically isn't a big deal, though you run the risk of data corruption or loss if the drive was in the middle of writing something. If you pull your OS drive though, you're gonna be looking at a blue screen of death if you're running Windows. Even though an operating system can technically run just in your RAM, Windows is frequently reading and writing to and from your main storage drive. And if the OS detects that the drive is no longer there, it will just send a signal to give you a blue screen and bring everything to a halt as punishment. What were you thinking? What are you doing? Funnily enough, Linux is a little better at handling drive removals or failures and can be more easily run just from RAM, which makes sense considering Linux is a very popular server operating system, an environment where you want as much uptime as possible, even if a drive fails. Then there's the physical consequences of removing a drive. SATA and the less common U.2 are physically designed for hot-swapping, but M.2 connectors aren't. So each time you pull out an M.2 drive while the computer is running, you run a greater chance of causing electrical damage to a sensitive connector that's already only rated for 60 insertions, so don't do it. It's sensitive. Now, let's get to what happens if you pull out a graphics card. GPUs aren't as critical for fundamental system operation as the other three components we've discussed, so can your system keep running if you just suddenly yeet your GPU out of its slot? Well, it depends. If you then plug your monitor into the video port on your motherboard and try and use your integrated graphics, your system might just keep running fine and give you one of those, your graphics driver stopped responding and recovered messages. Or you could try this key combo, if something doesn't look right, which manually tells the system to restart your graphics driver. However, the low-level portions of your graphics driver likely aren't coded to expect the sudden removal of a GPU, meaning the driver might tell your operating system to just throw up a blue screen instead. When in doubt, blue screen. Although Linux can handle GPU removal better, Microsoft has tried to slim down Windows code base, and it simply wasn't important for them to add support for recovering from someone yanking out the GPU while the computer is on, because how many people are doing that and what's wrong with them? But interestingly, Windows is good at dealing with GPU removal if you're just disconnecting a modern Thunderbolt cable that's being used by an external GPU enclosure, as it wouldn't make much sense for Microsoft to allow your system to blue screen, just because you pulled out a cable designed to be hot swapped. But please, don't yank your card out of its slot. I mean, even huge YouTube operations that benchmark dozens of cards, turn off their test benches first. And I didn't say you were supposed to watch this whole video, but here you are. Nice to see ya. Hey, thanks for watching the video. Like it if you liked it. Dislike it if you disliked it. Check out our other videos, comment below with video suggestions. And hey, don't forget to subscribe and follow. You're not supposed to do any of that stuff, but, you know."}