Does having a chip in the wrong way hurt components?

[elenore19]

If so...would it fry other chips? Or just itself?
I had a chip backwards on my octave build and something definitely got fried....was this it?

Thanks,

-Elliot

[slacker]

Depends what chip it was, if it's an opamp or a CMOS chip then putting it in backwards has probably killed it. In my experience a backwards chip has never damaged anything else.

[Earthscum]

Ya know, I've killed MANY op amps doing that, but I have yet to kill a CD4049 (you CAN put those in backwards, and they should be ok). I haven't even electrocuted one with the dry-carpet electric chair, lol. (static)

I doubt you hurt anything else, like slacker said... probably just the chip, and that is still dependent on the device.

[familyortiz]

Even if the chip was reinserted and seems ok, I would toss it anyways... latent damage does a thing on reliability.

[Earthscum]

Even if the chip was reinserted and seems ok, I would toss it anyways... latent damage does a thing on reliability.

if it's cheap, +1

but what I forgot to mention, 4049's are NC on the (reversed 'ground'), and where the pos+ goes is a gate. If you just have it in backwards, it won't damage them at all. Op amps, on the other hand, are a complete reverse of power if it goes in backwards. This seems to be the case for a majority of chips. It's like they make sure it's roached if you screw up.

I'm starting to wonder about the CMOS, though... I completely screwed up and soldered in a XOR instead of a 40106 and after powering it up for several cussing sessions, swapped it out... even after the prying and heat and just a general Lindsay England treatment, it still works. Same with the 4066 I had in there backwards (seriously... 2 chips, and I get one backwards, and the other just completely wrong! Apparently I was quite hasty with that pedal).

[benl560]

just did this yesterday. destroyed the opamp, but everything else is good

[R.G.]

A general rule is not possible. The details matter too much.

Suspect everything once you insert a chip backwards. Be happier the fewer things that are killed.

[Hides-His-Eyes]

9v pedal, any resistor >1k and any capacitor will surely be fine whatever weird shit you do to it, right?

[Earthscum]

9v pedal, any resistor >1k and any capacitor will surely be fine whatever weird sh*t you do to it, right?

lol... unless you do something strange like I just did a couple days ago... was playing with an envelope follower circuit, and changed to a schmitt and started adjusting for F-V conversion... somehow I got a diode backwards and it acted as a charge pump. Pretty neat, except I popped my first electro cap... it didn't like the reverse charge apparently (it was older cap used for just breadboarding... not sure if that helped in it's death, but I suspect the about 16 volts reversed across the 10V cap may be). Funky smell, and the top ended up like a domed tactile pushbutton.

[petemoore]

  You can probably tell more by studying the data sheet.
 Since RG weighed in already...
 I'll say it's just seeming unlikely anything would get past it, ie it'd mostly just be blocking currents, possibly becoming extremely hot.