Static Myth?

Azonic-Mantra

Azonic-Mantra

Azonic-Mantra

Associate
Joined
31 May 2007
Posts
24
Location
Essex, United Kingdom
I recently completed my first complete new build but have in the past fitted various cards and taken PC World dust boxes apart to see how they work. Since I’m still tweaking the new system and changing cable layout I’ve got my hands inside the case a fair bit and during my latest tinker got thinking about the 'static fear'.

In many , many build guides people always say to de-static yourself by touching a grounded object or non painted part of your house. What I want to know is has anyone ever in their life blown a part through their own personal electric charge or heard of anyone doing the same or damaged anything in their computer?

Or has anyone rubbed balloons all over their freshly knitted Nan supplied jumper and stuck them to the back of their hands in a carpeted room whist sitting on one of those electric globe things and spent the afternoon touching their motherboard to see what happens? :-)
 
It's not a myth, possibly not as much of a problem now as it used to be, but it's certainly not a myth.

One of the problems with static is that whilst it can kill stuff straight off, it can also just shorten it's life or cause an intermittent/hard to diagnose problem.
 
I think you would have to try pretty hard to cause any damage with static, things like in your last paragraph lol

I touch the case when I start but I have never really been that worried about it tbh.
 
IME it will only cause problems if there's still power going through components.

I remember building a pc for someone and I shorted the motherboard after touching it accidently with my finger trying to remove the graphics card. The mains was turned off (but with the power lead in the PSU for an earth), but there was still a reserve of power in the system.

Now before I open the case, I press the power button after switching it off at the mains to drain any power in the circuitry.
 
Way back in the dark ages when IRQ's and DMA where a black art (showing my age now) it used to be a problem but since then its nowhere near as deadly is people make it out to be.
Just touching the case is enougth to discharge you of anything that is likely to kill a component. As a general rule I always occasionaly just touch the case while im working on my stuff or building, or it could just be my OCD :D
 
hahaha, well its funny they include this in most of those build guides; I cant imagine how one would gain entry to their computer case to install or move components without actually toucing the case first :-S
 
Last edited:
Provided you and the components are grouned to the same ground you're fine, it takes a while to build up a dangerous charge so the chances are you'll accidentally ground yourself on the case enough to prevent massive discharge through components. Most sensetive devices don't have exposed conductors nowdays, just the gold plated bits on memory and CPU pins that you need to be careful of, though it is hard to handle them in a way that they can earth to a better or differing ground to yourself.

BIG charges can still kill stuff nicely. I tested this on some old kit using one of those clicky pitzo ignitors from lighters. Kills memory a treat.
 
The chair I sit in at work combined with the cheap nylon based trousers I wear cause me to have huge shocks whenever I get up and touch any grounded surface. Not good when I'm working on laptops and PC's. This is why I always ground myself.
 
Haha, yes the dodgy office chair / carpet has caused similar problems with me to the point that i swore i saw a blue spark. Best thing i found to discharge my static was to creep up on someone at work and touch the top of their ear :-)
 
Azonic-Mantra said:
Good tip, i've noticed in the past that there still seems to be electricity in certain parts even if the power is off!
Click to expand...

PSUs have pretty heavy duty caps that will hold charge for a very long time, unplugging from the power and then hitting the power button should cause it to deplete a lot more rapidly. I'd still not recommend messing about inside a PSU unless you know what you're doing though and let's face it, if you've got to have that explained to you by me then you're clearly not well enough aware.

I don't think static is a huge problem for most people any more, as long as you take basic sensible precautions (touch something earthed, handle components by edges without circuitry and keep handling to a minimum etc) then you'd have to be rather unfortunate to suffer damage.
 
I usually keep the IEC lead plugged into the power supply and wall socket, but with the wall socket switched off. Then press the pc power button to discharge the caps in the power suppply. This way the supply to the pc is completley dead, but the earth is still connected. You get the best possible earth this way (direct to the house fuse board or consumer unit), so you can regularly touch the bare metal pc case to discharge yourself. I also avoid wearing nylon/polyester clothing when doing work on pc's. Have you ever seen the discharge sparks when taking off a nylon jumper in the dark?
 
Last edited:
It's probably not going to cause damage, but it only takes two seconds to touch the unpainted part of a radiator. Worth it if there's even a small chance of ruining hundreds of pounds worth of hardware.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom