Live / Neutral on monitor does it matter?

This dude blew up a arcade monitor in my face today and I look in the back and he had live and neutral mixed up.
He said it didnt matter and thats not why it blew up.
What do you think?

Then he goes and really mixes them up (theres 4 cables) neurtral/ ground ,neutral/ground and plugs it into my test rig and sparks start flying everywhere. Before he did it he swore that he figured it out this time.

Im gonna go make a thread about this guy in a minute.

ANY equipment that does NOT have a transformer needs to either be plugged into an isolation transformer or have the polarized plugs.

ANY equipment you run on your bench for testing must be plugged into an isolation transformer.

If you don't it's a shock hazard. Some equipment connects the neutral to the chassis. Reverse the wiring and you have a bad shock hazard.

Even computers are sensitive to this... even if you have grounded plugs. Ever mess with old school 10Base2 networking? It's also known as "thinnet" and runs over RG-58 cables with BNC connectors. I got the shit shocked out of myself one day when troubleshooting a network problem by touching one of those BNC T connectors on the back of a computer. After bitching at the maintenance guy at the school who wired everything he reluctantly checked his wiring job. One of the outlets had the hot/neutral reversed. Once that was fixed the shock problem went away. The shield on the BNC connector was at 83v AC when measured against the case of the computer.

RJ

Yes, arcade monitors will be toast if you mess up the hot and neutral lines. The easiest way to tell is the hot side always has a fuse on the chassis.
And as a side note— people, replace those ac cords on your candy cabs with ones with a ground wire!

It depends if the appliance (read arcade cab) is earthed. In certain countries ie UK, Australia, NZ etc this is mandatory unless double insulated with no bare metal exposed for electrical safety standard approval.

In the US however, this is not the case, seem to have slack regulations when it comes to this issue.

Assuming there is an isolation transformer, and according to conventional design, it makes no difference which way around the mains is applied. Remember it is alternating, so you may as well switch the plug around 50 or 60 times a second.

In countries with strict electrical safety standards/regulations it is important, as neutral is referenced to earth, the appliance will work fine but safety may be compromised.

My advice would be, if your cab is not earthed, add an earth connection and get the neutral and active/live right.

Hope that makes sense.

Edit- beleive it or not PNG has more stringent electrical appliance safety regulations than the US (the regulatory body uses Australian standards as a guidline)