Ground yourself - do you bother?

meowCat

I upgraded the RAM in my laptop today and the RAM came with a notice saying "Static electricity can damage your module and other computer parts. You need to ground yourself to avoid "shocking" your computer".

Friends of mine said they've never bothered. I asked why and the answer was "nothing bad ever happened".

So my question: Do YOU bother?

Silverfish

Yes. Always. After the motherboard incident of 2007.

Creamy Goodness

god yes, i don't go to the lengths some people go to ie. buying wrist straps/haz suits etc but definitely touch some unpainted metal ie inside of your case chasis.

it's there whilst you're working inside your pc so for a couple of seconds it's foolish not to ground yourself.

irlrobins

Sort of... I usually try and touch the PSU before I unplug the PC in order to ground myself. But often I'm just opening the case quickly to blow dust out or whatever. In which case I just lay it on the carpet. Which is probably static heaven! But so far I haven't had any probs.

Naikon

Yes every time, No point in risking damaging the Hardware by not following simple rules when building a PC.
I also use the anti-static wrist strap.

Grounding yourself by touching unpainted metal is probably enough unless you handle Enterprise level Hardware, I mean I didnt bother wearing the strap working on the old P1 266mhz machine which now resides as a router:D

Ruu_Old

Everytime, without fail.

TerrorFirmer

Not once in my entire life. In fact, once I was assembling a PC with some of my stuff laid out on the carpet in my room. This was, in my younger days. but even now I don't ever bother. Don't know why, not like it's time consuming....

zAbbo

always !

discharge static onto metal casing, unplug pc, and cycle power to remove any current.

John mac

always.
And have wire connected from radiator to case just in case!:D

dazftw

I touch loads of stuf.. radiators, light switches, psu... Its weird almost everyday I get a static shock of a door handle or something... but ive never had it happen with a pc

uberpixie

Always tip a radiator on an unpainted metallic part or the metal base of a plugged in lamp.

Once forgot to and got a pop and a spark when handling my old maxtor harddrive.

Luckily the harddrive survived and still works perfectly to this day:eek:.

conzy

leave your pc plugged in, but with the PSU switch off when you're working on it...

Then its grounded, and you will be grounded by touching the case...

ethernet

Wouldn't like to risk not doing it, especially for a processor. Just a wrist strap. Was going to buy an anti-static mat in Maplin but they didn't have any at the time.

Khannie

Used not bother, but newer kit is a /lot/ more likely to fry.

For my last build, I got some wire, stripped a bit and tied it to my (metal) watch, stripped the other end and tied it to the radiator. Presto; Anti static strap.

DirkVoodoo

Yup, touch the back of my radiator every time, so far no frying. Also, I have lots of wood in my room, no carpets (god, that sounds really dodgy!)

sharingan

conzymaher wrote:

leave your pc plugged in, but with the PSU switch off when you're working on it...

Then its grounded, and you will be grounded by touching the case...

Sounds a bit like trusting your PSU manufacturer too much. Or trusting yourself to switch the PSU off .

I like static wrist strap clipped to case, and another wire clipping case to radiator.

Anti

Never ever. The most i would ever do is touch the case every few mins to make sure no static build ups. i have built close to maybe 50/60 pcs in the last 2 years, And nothing has been damaged by static.

hopeful

You could always live dangerously...try rubbing a cat vigorously against your head before touching delicate electronics...better than the Lotto

If the static doesn't kill any components you will surely get ripped to bits by the cat :eek:

conzy

sharingan wrote:

conzymaher wrote:

eave your pc plugged in, but with the PSU switch off when you're working on it...

Then its grounded, and you will be grounded by touching the case...

Sounds a bit like trusting your PSU manufacturer too much. Or trusting yourself to switch the PSU off .

What? The whole case is grounded through the PSU....

TonyM.

I never have and its never been a problem .

AppleBack

See as were all talking about static electricity, when wearing a wrist strap do you attach it to the floor or to a metal part in the PC? I have a book that says you attach it to the floor but this website here says you attach it to the metal part.

Which is it?

L31mr0d

you attach it to the "ground", thus the name, i'm guessing people attach it to a radiator as it goes into the ground? I dunno?

I did 5 years in college studying and building electronics and not once did I fry a component (well, not accidentally, a few times we'd turn the volts up to 30v on some guys 5v circuits, man those IC's pop )

I never wear protection against static, I just use common sense, by only holding the edges of the PCB when handling components. Oh and conzy is right, if the case isn't plugged into the wall or at least attached to a radiator, then it isn't grounded. You can only ground something by actually having it connect to the ground, via a metal water pipe or earth electrode. Its a myth that touching a case on its own will ground you.

EDIT: never really looked into this, but how well do computer cases act like a faradays cage? Could this be the reason why people ground themselves off stand alone computer cases?

Blowfish

For me it depends what i'm doing.

If it's just fiddling with a hdd/floppy/cd/dvd I don't bother, for pretty much anything else I would.

Incidentally, i've never actually gotten a static shock from anything. Maybe I just don't conduct very well.

mloc

I just touch an unpainted part of a radiator before I start and if I've been moving over carpet whilst building. Couldn't be arsed with a strap. I know of guys who've dropped level 2 cache modules (back in the day!) down behind car seats and they've worked fine, once the dust was blown off.

Revalco

I kinda do try lol, somedays I just couldn't arsed. Depends on the computer to be honest.

But if its a job of importance i will do my best to ground myself.

Beelzebub

Never have.

No problems so far. Touch wood!:D

Revalco

Beelzebub wrote:

Never have.

No problems so far. Touch wood!:D

LMAO

DanGerMus

who actually has an unpainted radiator in there house? they're supplied sprayed white. and touchin the case or any metal thing just discharges any static build up doesnt it. and grounding yourself with a straps prevents any build up at all. So the touching things is for those of us who arent strapped and grounded. I'm always strapped i'm a student. lol strapped to the ground now that would be scarey...lol cringe... then you would be static.. cringier.. lol sorry

mloc

happygandalf wrote:

who actually has an unpainted radiator in there house? they're supplied sprayed white. and touchin the case or any metal thing just discharges any static build up doesnt it. and grounding yourself with a straps prevents any build up at all. So the touching things is for those of us who arent strapped and grounded. I'm always strapped i'm a student. lol strapped to the ground now that would be scarey...lol cringe... then you would be static.. cringier.. lol sorry

probably also an idea not be to be drunk when your putting a computer together...

DirkVoodoo

Back of most radiators aren't painted. Also, you could touch the copper tubing at the inlet/outlet near the bottom.

I am also in the bracket of not getting static shocks too often. I remember coming home after a science class one day and trying the whole "rubbing feet on a carpet while wearing socks and touching something metal".....nothin!

The most I have broken so far is a SATA power cable when reorganising HDDs.

joshcork

I once got a hell of a shock of the power button on my Dell inspiron, purely from static now. Work in the desert most of the time so static is an issue if I had touched any bit of electronics it'd be dead after. I get shocks regularly enough getting out of cars touching grounded cabinets etc bloody annoying so it is. Started wearing non static clothing but all the dust doesn't help.

So discharging yourself is good, really should discharge at least once before you start.