Has anyone killed a piece of hardware due to static...

Guitarman0 · 24 May 2011 at 16:40

FARGO said:
What if you've got a big beard / really hairy arms?

lol

weird_dave · 24 May 2011 at 17:24

I've killed individual components before they made it to the PCB. Once on the PCB, static tends to be less of a problem as it dissipates accross the board rather than one component.

Lemin · 24 May 2011 at 17:26

Bought a antistatic mat years ago & never used it on any builds so far. Actualy i just remembered its here.

Hanuki · 24 May 2011 at 17:51

I heard static can cause premature deaths in hardware XD but never experienced it myself

Werewolf · 24 May 2011 at 20:08

A few years ago (about 10

), I think i killed a fairly good soundcard due to static

Since then I've been pretty careful with AS precautions, I actually (finally) bought an AS plug the other week so I can just plug my mat and strap into it, and then into any available socket

Having said that normally I only go full AS if building/rebuilding (the mat is very handy for the motherboard/fitting cpu's/coolers etc), and if just swapping something like a hard drive I don't even bother with the strap.

jake9891 · 24 May 2011 at 23:18

Havent killed anything with static yet and I have never used anti-static wrist strap or mat, cleaned PCs with vacuum cleaner (stopped now, just use soft brush). What I usually do is just switch off PC completely, flip the switch on PSU, unplug it from mains then press power button few times. This technique seems to work fine for the past few years

tronath · 24 May 2011 at 23:26

Haven't killed anything with static afaik, but today I had a static shock as I touched PC case, holding a CPU in my other hand.. luckily it still works

MikeHunt79 · 24 May 2011 at 23:27

I haven't, you have to be careful handling individual IC's however, as they have no capacitors to absorb the static...

jax_5 · 24 May 2011 at 23:30

Around 10 years ago the general advice I came across was that an anti static strap was a must especially when handling motherboard.

But neither me nor anyone I know have killed any componants when building or upgrading - hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying that

Baldbloke · 24 May 2011 at 23:56

There will always be people who think they have never caused static damage. Then there will be people who know a bit about static. I'd rather buy my components from the latter.

Some interesting, dare I say necessary, info on static here:

http://samplecode.rockwellautomation.com/idc/groups/literature/documents/sb/8000-sb001_-en-p.pdf

weird_dave · 25 May 2011 at 11:32

"ESD immediately destroys sensitive devices in only 10% of most ESD
incidents. It degrades performance in the remaining 90%. Only a quarter of the
voltage required to destroy the component is needed to degrade its
p e r f o rm a n c e"

This is the thing, chances are it'll work fine for a while if you've caused damage.

Lucas Fenix · 25 May 2011 at 12:06

Never killed anything, neither has my dad and he's been making PC's for years. I remember him having an electrostatic mat but later on he stopped using it.

Baldbloke · 25 May 2011 at 17:13

weird_dave said:
"ESD immediately destroys sensitive devices in only 10% of most ESD
incidents. It degrades performance in the remaining 90%. Only a quarter of the
voltage required to destroy the component is needed to degrade its
p e r f o rm a n c e"

This is the thing, chances are it'll work fine for a while if you've caused damage.

Good statement. It's good to know there are some people who know what they are talking about when it comes to static. I used to be in the "I never damaged a thing with static" category until I learned a little about it. Then I realised that I was in fact probably causing lots of damage. I just hadn't realised it.

BringTheRain · 25 May 2011 at 17:39

Quite interesting to read, thanks

Amraam · 25 May 2011 at 17:49

Where I work the carpet is always generating static, so everything I touch (including people Mwuahaha) causes a static shock. I dismantled and rebuilt a PC here the other day without any issue, and all I did was earth myself on the desk every 5 mins by touching it giving myself a shock lol

Amraam · 25 May 2011 at 17:51

tronath said:
Haven't killed anything with static afaik, but today I had a static shock as I touched PC case, holding a CPU in my other hand.. luckily it still works

That wouldn't be an issue as the the static is not earthing via the GPU. It's only if the potential difference between the two is enough to get static to jumop from you to the component that it would be a problem.

I think...