short = connection that's not supposed to be connected
Example: The nail caused a short betwen the hot and neutral.

open = connection that's supposed be there, but isn't.
Example: The nail broke the wire, and now the wire is open.

Was your computer fried from an open neutral? So the power
was going from black to black, instead of returning through
the open neutral wire?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Master Betty" wrote in message
...


Chances are nothing will happen but it's possible you could
have a short
there. It happened to me. A problem could occur if you have
two appliances
plugged into the same circuit and they complete the circuit.
If you had two
guitar players or mics in the same circuit and the musicians
touched it
could be deadly. You need to open the wall up. Pull the wire
out. Cut it and
splice it back together in a control box. Sorry for the bad
news but there
is a potential problem. BTW: the same thing happened to me.
I destroyed a
computer when I plugged it into a printer on a different
outlet.