Originally Posted by
Skylane
The resistance does not matter that much for the pot is connected to +5 V (DC) and 0 V (ground) each at one end (so to speak). The PC (Analog to Digital converter) reads only the voltage from the slider of the pot... so a value between 0 and 5 Volts. The input impedance from the AD converter is so high, no current is flowing into the converter. The only current running is the current from the +5 Volt terminal to the 0 Volt terminal... so in case of a 100K pot 50 micro amps and in case of a 10K pot 500 micro amps.
However if you have (only once) connected the pot wrong and slided up/down, the pot will be permanentely damaged !!! and needs to be replaced.