Earthing

armour87

I hear I need to earth myself before I take my PC apart and dust it

Problem is i dont have a clue what to use,

How on earth shall I do this and is it necessary?

KamiKazi

you must lick the floor, saliva is the only way to earth yourself properly

armour87

Thats wasnt very helpful and didnt taste too super either

Gadgetman496

That was cruel me thinks

Just touch a bare metal part of the case with the back of your hand before you go near the parts. That will discharge any static electricity from your body.

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Fnz

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Just touch a bare metal part of the case with the back of your hand before you go near the parts. That will discharge any static electricity from your body.

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As a rule of thumb, should you keep contact with the metal for the duration of the part-fiddling, or is it only necessary to discharge every couple of minutes?

TerrorFirmer

KamiKazi, this is the second time I've seen you post unhelpfully in the past few weeks. Given that you don't post here on a regular basis, and the last two posts that have come to my attention are silly without offering any genuine advice alongside them, consider this a warning.

If you're that concerned you can buy an anti-static wrist strap from any PC Store like Maplins, PC World, Peats etc. Personally I've never used one nor do I really ever remember to earth myself, and never have had any problems. You'd really have to be unlucky to the highest degree to actually damage something in this manner, though it can happen....better safe then sorry.

stevenmu

Fnz wrote: »

As a rule of thumb, should you keep contact with the metal for the duration of the part-fiddling, or is it only necessary to discharge every couple of minutes?

In general I'd make sure to earth myself at the start but after that I'd only conciously do it if I move away from the box and back again. Usually working inside the box though you're going to to be touching the metal case fairly regularly anyway.

IMHO it's much more important to be careful about what you actually touch, handle boards/cards/modules etc by the sides, don't touch chips or contacts, and only touch the part you specifically want to, don't accidentally brush off others (can be tricky in a crowded case but it's worth taking some time over).

Fnz

Cheers for the confirmation.

Shad0w

HavoK wrote: »

If you're that concerned you can buy an anti-static wrist strap from any PC Store like Maplins, PC World, Peats etc.

It's a good idea to earth yourself if you're handling Motherboard, Memory, processor or PIC Cards.

If you do go down the road of getting a Wrist Strap you can connect it to a Radiator pipe for example as these are earthed. I have never used them nor do I intent to...

KenH

Good question. I've also been wondering if it's ok to wear latex gloves (I'm being serious ) when building? I assume it can't be harmful to the electronics and it might keep my sweaty paws off "Important Stuff TM".

PogMoThoin

I always build beside a radiator & touch it fairly often. Try also to keep one hand touching the metal on the case.

ComputerNerd

static isnt as big a deal as the companies make out, i worked in an ESD free microchip factory for 5 years, and the engineers always said that static damage had never been proved


did a course in computers once and the tutor told us that he had a box of computer parts that he would pass around the class to show people what some parts looked like, everything was regually mauled and even occasionally dropped,
one day he used this box of parts to put "faults" into a few computers for a trouble shooting exercise, but they all worked perfectly


having said all that.....
make sure to ground yourself prefectly.... just in case


edit.... first post... w00t

HJL

someone told me once to take my shoe and sock off and touch a radiator pipe with my toe while i work on it. looks a bit silly, but i guess in theory it works. and i installed RAM into my laptop trouble free yesterday using that technique.

Gadgetman496

HJL wrote: »

someone told me once to take my shoe and sock off and touch a radiator pipe with my toe while i work on it. looks a bit silly, but i guess in theory it works. and i installed RAM into my laptop trouble free yesterday using that technique.

Just make sure the heat isn't on too high
You could burn your toe toes me thinks

cregser

Wrist straps have a resistor in them that needs to be calibrated from time to time. But I suppose it's better than nothing.

I would only use them if I was in an enviroment that generated static - but i don't tend to have balloons and plastics around much when i'm handling PC parts.

Gadgetman496

A lot of synthetic carpets contain nylon & the friction from just walking on them can generate heaps of static too.


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Deliverance XXV

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I always build beside a radiator & touch it fairly often. Try also to keep one hand touching the metal on the case.

I use this method also. But it has to be a non-painted surface on the radiator.