Anyone lost hardware due to static electricity?

[Czar]

Having a discussion about this on another forum and I have personaly never lost hardware that way no matter how much I abuse my spare parts

 

[Kwatt]

Originally posted by: Czar
Having a discussion about this on another forum and I have personaly never lost hardware that way no matter how much I abuse my spare parts

I have not. I am not careless with parts but i'm not anal with their handling either.

I think "static electricity" is credited for a lot of improper installations.



Kwatt

 

[LongCoolMother]

never from handling or static electricity. i am kind of careful, but not really. i just grab the stuff normally and dont always bother to ground myself on metal. but never lost anything. i HAVE however, lost 2 systems almost entirely to power surges into my PSU.

 

[sd]

not yet...knock on wood

 

[HardWarrior]

While it's still possible to destroy a component with SE, todays parts are no where near as fragile as the ones 25-years ago.

 

[brainwave]

Not the small-spark kind of static you get from rubbing your feet on the carpet,
BUT, I did lose a Toshiba laptop motherboard in an electrical storm. The computer was off, but plugged in. Lightning struck across the street. After that it would not boot even though the power light went on. Toshiba replaced the mb under warranty and told me the board had shorted. The HD and all my data were fine. Now I unplug the power supply whenever there is lightning, though I doubt that matters.

 

[Cerb]

Yes, but not often enough to be paranoid, and it was only once a suprise.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Not yet but I try to ground myself by touching the case frequently and try not to rub my feet as I walk if I'm on carpet.

 

[vegetation]

Not me, but I live in a high humidity environment.

 

[nick1985]

no. i think hardware is more durable than people think

 

[InlineFive]

Well, I saw a guy who rolled over an AMD processor laying on the floor with his chair. He said it still worked with the exception of the Interger processing.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: brainwave
Not the small-spark kind of static you get from rubbing your feet on the carpet,

Where did you read that?
I read on my A+ Certification for dummies book(rev 2001) that you could damage hardware with static electricity without even feeling it
Most of your hardware runs on 3 to 5 volt currents. It takes 3000 volts of static before you can feel it, and 20,000volts before you can see it. 30 volts going through a 3-5 volt circuit could easily damage it, if not destroy it. Thus it is very easy to damage hardware with static without even feeling it. It might not kill your hardware immediately, but it did damage.

 

[brainwave]

Virtualgames0, You misunderstood me. I did not mean to say you could not damage a computer with static electricity generated by rubbing on a carpet. I simply meant to say that I have never damaged a computer in that way. I am sure it happens, and it IS very important to ground thyself before opening the case and touching anything.
The only experience with static electricity damaging a computer I have had (that I am sure of) was with static electricity in the air as a result of nearby lightning.

 

[StageLeft]

Nope, and I'm not very careful.

 

[Texun]

Maybe. Years ago I swapped something (can't remember what) and the PC wouldn't see the hard drive. I found out later that the controller card was toast. It worked fine, then after some fiddling around inside the case it stopped. I guess it could have been a static charge.

 

[yhelothar]

ok in response to this then

no. i think hardware is more durable than people think

 

[sandorski]

Never have.

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: GrumpyMan
Not yet but I try to ground myself by touching the case frequently and try not to rub my feet as I walk if I'm on carpet.

 

[Manzelle]

Killed an Epox 8RDA3+ board...

 

[JBT]

nope, crosses fingers

 

[SilentRunning]

How about rephrasing it to: Anyone received defective hardware?

I still believe that most of the people who claim they have bought something new and it was defective damaged it through improper handling. I have had only one computer part which has failed in the last 21 years, and have never had any defective parts.

So call me anal by using a ground strap when installing hardware, but why change with that track record.


Edited to correct number of years, time flies when you get old.

 

[Sunner]

Once, a Matrox Millennium II quite a few years back.
Spark wasn't strong enough to be felt or seen, just the little crack noise, but it killed a VRAM chip.

 

[Schadenfroh]

no, and i always just go for it, no touching anything or static gaurd, i even wear socks on my carpet

 

[MadAd]

Not me, my place is a static den where just stroking the cat without my shoes on can cause shocks between him and me and im always pulling bits in and out of mine and others pcs in this same room.

Mostly by the time ive got the case off then ive touched enough metal to discharge it, and even using this table as a workbench ive never killed anything yet.


good home for spare cpu cycles

 

[odog]

yes.

i have killed a slotA athlon 500. it oc'd to 750 at default voltage, so i took off the metal plate. during the process of getting up and down i "felt" voltage. the cpu never worked again.

when i was working on a machine outside a case. just the mobo on a desk, i walked over and didn't discharge before touching the hard drive. about 1 inch from the drive i saw a arc shoot out of my finger. the machine reset instantly and the hard drive wouldn't even detect in the bios after that.