blow out a motherboard or a curcuit board

[2boot]

A friend pluged a printer into her computer and it wouldn't print correctly and she lost her installation disc. She took it to a shop and they said she blown her mothertboard by pluging it into her computer. Is this something that could happen that way? thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Unless the printer is very weirdly bad, no....that can't happen.

Unplug the printer. Does the PC work?

 

[Unolocogringo]

USB port , probably not.
LPT or parallel port, maybe if she plugged it in while the computer was on.

 

[2boot]

thanks to you both I will tell her answers. thanks again

 

[bryanl]

USB ports are designed to withstand at least 12K volts of static, but very low humidity in the winter can cause 30K volt sparks.

Parallel and serial ports are much more vulnerable, and I once heard a super I/O chip snap when a parallel printer was plugged in, followed by the odor of burning epoxy. The chip bulged and cracked.