Can a motherboard be tested outside a case? I have the components....

[breeze]

Hi everyone!

My friend has a new motherboard that will not detect the floppy drive.
He has tried different cables and floppy drives no luck. He even went in the bios to have all settings seek the floppy ...no luck. I have a spare power supply, vid card, floppy and hard drive ...can I test it outside the case??? I am not sure the motherboard will be properly grounded with just the power supply...I was going to use plastic stand offs to keep the bottom from touching anything.. If this is possible, I can rule out his PS and case peripherals etc. To start the boot I thought I could just short the powerleds and watch the boot process.

Thanks in advance,
Breeze

 

[SHoddyCOmp]

Yea, it wont hurt it, just dont put it on carpet or anything A good idea is to put the static bag on top of the box it came in then put the mb on that and hook everything up that way you wont have any concerns. It will work outside.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Sure. Just make sure that the motherboard is on a non-conductive surface, and that all the cards are firmly seated in their respective slots. I do it all the time.

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

Some static bags are conductive.... The pink foam sheets work well.

 

[PlatinumGrill]

yeah, you should be able to. I saw some guy at a computer show run his whole computer outside of a case. I wouldnt recommend doing it too much, but you can.

 

[breeze]

I thought I could do it, but I felt better posting the question first.
I have the original box and a foam sleeve ....nice tip! Outside of shorting the power led to start the boot process. I dont think I will need to set any of the other case pins?

Thanks for all the replies!!!

Breeze

 

[Shadowgate]

the only things you need hooked up are the ps, the processor, and ram. i do this when i have a problem and need to check components.

i ran my whole set up laying on my floor for about a week once while i was tinkering with the case. didn't hurt a thing : ) and i think it kept my processor a little cooler too lol.

 

[grrl]

Some static bags are conductive....

I assume that's how it dissipates any electrical charge, right?

 

[BigNeko]

Looking.

In meantime, here is good intro to static.

Intro to static.

How bags are made (but not why).

Well, I asked the "Zap Zar" and this is what I got:

There really is no conflict in having an ESD protective bag that has an antistatic inside layer, but also has a surface resistivity in the dissipative range. The term antistatic refers to the material?fs ability to resist triboelectric charge generation. For example, the sliding of a board or component in a bag could generate a static charge. A material's antistatic properties are not necessarily predicted by its resistance or resistivity.

Surface or volume resistivity measurements help define the bag?fs ability to provide charge dissipation or electrostatic shielding.

Electrostatic shielding attenuates electrostatic fields on the surface of a package in order to prevent a difference in electrical potential from existing inside the package. Electrostatic shielding is provided by materials that have a surface resistance equal to or less than 1.0 x 10E3 when tested according to EOS/ESD-S11.11 or a volume resistivity of equal to or less than 1.0 x 10E3 ohm-cm when tested according to the methods of EIA 541.

Dissipative materials provide charge dissipation characteristics. These materials have a surface resistance greater than 1.0 x 10E4 but less than or equal to 1.0 x 10E11 when tested according to EOS/ESD-S11.11 or a volume resistivity greater than 1.0 x 10E5 ohm-cm but less than or equal to 1.0 x 10E12 ohm-cm when tested according to the methods of EIA 541.

The important factor to remember is that antistatic is not necessarily defined by resistance or resistivity. However, shielding and charge dissipation can be defined by resistance and resistivity. Thus, you can specify a bag that is antistatic as well as static shielding or static dissipative.

For additional information, see:

ESD-ADV 1.0 1994, Glossary, ESD Association

Now, I am confused.