Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)

[Annabell]

Just something useful to know if your about to undertake a build or hardware upgrade - (ESD) - electrostatic discharge

A potentially harmful discharge of static electricity. Often referred to as "shocking" a component, even a small amount of ESD can severely damage or destroy computer components, precautions such as static straps are recommended when working with ESD-sensitive devices such as Memory / Motherboards to prevent damage it is one of the few things an individual can do to damage or destroy his or her computer or hardware components much like the shock you receive when rubbing your feet on the carpet and touching something metal, ESD can occur when working in your computer and will cause components you touch to no longer work properly "fry them" . ESD can occur without the user feeling a shock and can occur while working on the inside of the computer or handling components on the Motherboard or the Motherboard its self.
Purchasing a static strap is a cheep price to pay when you conceder the price of new Motherboards, a static strap will cost about £5 - £8 = $9 - $15 and can be purchased in most Computer stores or on line, some people will say you don't need to earth your self ? well thats up to them but to chance damaging your own components seems a bit dumb to me and is not good practice.

A standard static strap

Ann

[svenviking]

Anti-static wrist bands are a good investment. However, I rarely use mine. I've been building/modding/repairing pcs for years - and get paid to do it too. My lazy method is simple.

Touch a radiator.

Leave the power supply plugged in but turned off.


-Phil

[Annabell]

Leave the power supply plugged in but turned off and touching the PSU housing will also earth you, but "eg" Ram should be held buy its edges and not everyone has hands big enough to span a Ram Stick so some need to use both hands "like girls", easy to forget to touch something first ? and i to have shared the profit from working with my Uncle who builds high end PCs privately for a living and has been my teacher/good friend for a good few years now, so i will keep wearing my static strap , No radiators in his garage LoL

Ann

[svenviking]

Yeah! haha

[Annabell]

I have received an e mail from a friend he was cleaning his internal fans, blowing off the motherboard etc and he decided to remove the RAM and take off the RAM sinks, after cleaning the RAM sinks he returned to the Computer to find his six year old sister playing with one of his 512MB RAM sticks (ESD) the RAM stick is knacked.

Ann