• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

stactic shock?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Tc3 Toad

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Location
lynnwood, wa
This applies to all computer components.

Have you personally ever fried something in your computer by stactic electricty? my mom gets freaked out when ever i have a component out of my case and its not in a anti stactic bag. Dosent the electricty have to have some way to ground? so if i am holding lets say a video card and rubbing my feet around on the carpet i cant fry it because the stactic has no way to get to a ground. Even with a mobo in a case if you touch it and somehow it does shock it wont it go to the ground wire?

so please correct me if i am wrong and tell me of any your experences with stactic shock.

thanks
 
Static damage occurs due to sudden discharges or charges, not because something is charged. For example if you walked around in nylon socks on a carpet holding a video card and then touched the video card in the AGP slot then the card would probably not be happy. The static electricity would discharge through the card and cause lots of volts to build up inside chips.

If you are sufficiently grounded when working in computer cases (usually just by touching the case) then I don't think it is possible to zap anything and neither me nor my father has done so yet.
 
Yes I have killed a modem in my old compaq from ESD...was on carpet and reached inside the case and shocked the modem...had to replace the modem the next day...wasn't a believer of ESD until then...
 
L33T M33P:
If you have build up in the card and then go to plug it in the statcic should not go anywere because your agp slot is not grounded.

Glock19owner:
are you sure it was esd and not you accidentally broke sumthin off? I guess i wont be a beliver either until it happens to me too.
 
There are actually ground pins on the AGP connector that correspond to 0V pins inside the AGP slot. I should have said "when you put it in" instead of "touch it against the slot". Then any static potential difference would run discharge through the grounded pins.
 
Ok so maby your right, but has this ever happened to you? So You dont know if this is can happen?

Sorry all the questions i just got really courious about it.
 
Heh I would in no way take the "it's never happened to me so it never will" attitude towards very expensive or even moderately priced PC parts. Better safe than sorry, but the realm of adequate safety preparation is probably only limited to touching your case beforehand, and not walking around in nylon socks ;)
 
well as glock19owner said, this can happen, but as much as I messed with hardware on the carpet I never had that happen to me. Maybe that's because I was always wearing my rubber slippers or sports shoes, which can provide some grounding, and you want collect static by standing on the carpet. If you want to be completely safe, you should put the H/W in anti-static bags, but I did have cards just lying around which I pulled out, stack in and ran the PC no probs. Unless u mess with it too much it should be ok even w/o an anti static-bag
 
Tc3 Toad said:
Ok so maby your right, but has this ever happened to you? So You dont know if this is can happen?

Sorry all the questions i just got really courious about it.

curious*

how old are you anyway?
 
I've never killed anything this way. Its sort of a habit now to touch the unpainted metal on my case before I mess with any hardware. Actually, sometimes I do it so much without thinking it probably looks like I'm molesting my computer.
 
i fried a sound card once. Not sure when it happened it was either when i took it out or put it back in. I always touched my case before working on it but it still happened. I use a static wrist strap now. Especially since i have an acrylic case for this computer.
 
Thankfully I have never fried anything yet (that I know of). In my studies I have learned that it takes a VERY small amount of current to damage a sensitive IC. Some IC may be damaged by ~30V! (For perspective, you can feel at about 2,000V, hear it at about 3-5,000V, and see it at about 10,000V).

While I haven't fried anything, I suspect I have caused very minor damage, or leakage, to an IC which started causing long-term stability problems. This is the worst kind of damage, IMO, because it seems like it works, but it will forever have stability issues and they will grow worse over time. Of course, you can cause this without feeling, seeing or hearing the damage :(
 
Tc3 Toad said:
Ok so maby your right, but has this ever happened to you? So You dont know if this is can happen?

Sorry all the questions i just got really courious about it.
so u mean that shorting an ic wont do anything seeing as i havent done it yet? of course it will do something (that is how i used to get warranty on boards that they tried to repair, stick a thiin copper wire between the legs!!!)
static is a real thing, and it does damage boards, but its a 1 off thing that will happen to you once or twice in your whole computer geek life....
thing is it may happen anywhere, so take the advice and touch the metal of your case once in a while to discharge any that is evident, it is also highly un likely it is going to damage a board lying on carpet, as there is no movement or friction to generate the electricity.
 
Fried a great T-bird 1 Ghz that would run 1.65 on water. Twas a sad day. The power cord was still in providing ground and when I touched the heat sink there was a slight tick and that was that. :(
 
Nothing to do with computers but once my pedal snapped off my bike when i crashed into my friend kind of on a ramp. I went to pick the pedal up and a static disdcharge about 2 inches shot off the ramp and hit my hand and teh same happened on the other side of the ramp and hit my friends leg. The ramp was built of a metal frame with plastic shets on top so I guess the warm weather and teh friction i caused charged it up. It was wierd anyways, kind of hurt too. Bit of a story for ya there boys, hope that was fun. ;)
 
One time I was putting the side of my case back on, and my dorm room was rather dry that day(we were having a/c problems at the university), and as I put the side of my case on, me and my roomate saw a spark almost 2 inches long go from my case to one of my free molex connectors. The computer wouldn't do anything for almost 2 hours. I thought it was fried, then after I came back from dinner I figured I would give it one more shot, and it fired up.... all I can figure is that it tripped a self resetting circuit breaker or something, but I know that I am lucky and everything has kept working in the computer till this day. It really scared me though...lol, and I am a lot more careful now, even when I m just handling my case :)

Ir0nman
 
Back