Anti-Static?

LeJosh

LeJosh

LeJosh

Soldato
Joined
24 Sep 2008
Posts
10,448
Location
Edinburgh.
Hey all, how many people are actually cautious enough to buy the straps the mat and all that jazz? Is it really such a dominant problem?

I did a course and we had to hook up all the time obviously to prevent the college hardware from frying. Is it really worth it? Or just use a spoon? :p

I didn't know where to make this thread...
 
LeJosh said:
So it really isn't that big a deal? Until something does spark :p
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I repair PC's + Servers M-F and then play with my own on weekends. I NEVER use an anti static strap/mat and I have never damaged anything :) Just make sure you touch case/radiator or something first.
 
Yeah that's all I wanted to know, planning on making one soon and didn't really feel like dishing out cash for them... just yet. Might do one day, just so I have an area to work with.
 
Sigh... - It's very irresponsible for some of the above posters to dismiss the importance of good anti static care, and no doubt have cost the clients a fortune.

The damage static discharge can do to your components usually is not instantaneous. This is often the case why people's equipment fails unexpectedly months/years down the line when it should have lasted a lifetime.

Similar to when oc'ing a cpu if you stress it too much it may still work fine, however it may fail at some unknown point in the future because the chip has been stressed too far, and effectively wounded/degraded.

A good google will enlighten you all.

Save yourself time and cost - ground yourself.
 
When rebuild my pc's I just touch radiator or copper pipe which is earthed, sometimes I will the psu plugged in but switched off at the mains.
 
Blackbadger said:
This is often the case why people's equipment fails unexpectedly months/years down the line when it should have lasted a lifetime.
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From personal experience I haven't had any proof of that. I have always done as the others in this thread has said by touching a radiator/the case itself with the PSU plugged in to the wall (but not turned on).

My first self build was a P4 Northwood (the first one) which I bought in early 2003 I think, ran 24/7 in my use for 3 years and is still working a treat for my friend who I sold it to (only changes were additonal ram and a faster GPU).
 
celliott said:
I repair PC's + Servers M-F and then play with my own on weekends. I NEVER use an anti static strap/mat and I have never damaged anything :) Just make sure you touch case/radiator or something first.
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You haven't damaged anything? perhaps you haven't killed anything straight away but I bet you have reduced the life of the components that you have touched. :( Do the owners of the PC's / servers know about the importance of ESD and how careless you are?

When working with components that are sensitive to ESD you should be permanently grounded as static can be generated from the moment that you are not grounded. No advice is better than bad advice.
 
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To be honest if it is your own PC and you are willing to take the risk then fine, but if you are working on mission critical servers then it is not worth taking the risk due to downtime/cost etc.
 
Being grounded is as likely to damage components if they have a static charge that isn't zero, it's the equalisation of charge levels that causes issues.
 
I'm not really wanting to risk my hardware... Not often I see pennies like this. I don't know how I will afford the equipment.
 
I've never ever grounded myself and I've built all my PC's since I was 12. Even used to build stuff on the carpet! Never had anything fail on me the past 10 years apart from the odd HDD.
 
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