Has anyone actually fried or damaged a part with static?

[NTB]

At least, I *think* I did. Had a soundcard once that would be detected and install just fine, but none of the jacks would work. No sound would come out.

Nate

 

[Kelemvor]

I've never staticly killed antyhing, I always use magnetic screwdrivers, I set pieces down on whatever's handy while working... Never had a problem.

 

[Viperoni]

Nope, and I practically never ground myself at work (commercial/industrial grade low pile carpet), but I often ground myself to my case at home.

 

[Cheezeit]

Wow, any other stories?

 

[ProviaFan]

I'm careful, but I've never worn the anti-static wrist straps and stuff, and I haven't killed anything yet.

 

[cerebusPu]

my roommate was rubbing himself and touched his mouse. felt a static shock and his mouse never worked since. hahah...that was hilarious.

 

[Cheezeit]

I didn't know you coud fry a mouse. lol

anybody else?

 

[Rock Hydra]

Originally posted by: cerebusPu
my roommate was rubbing himself and touched his mouse. felt a static shock and his mouse never worked since. hahah...that was hilarious.

XD, owned.

 

[toekramp]

yes, dropped a harddrive on my carpet...

it had like 700 mp3s and this was back in like 98 when it took 20 mins to get one song....the pain

 

[joecool]

i've done a HUGE amount of computer work and never had a problem - while it always pays to be careful the truth is that modern ic's are designed with circuitry to protect from large voltage spikes.

i did kill a cpu once - by cracking the die on an athlon xp when installing the heat sink. after that i ALWAYS used a shim ... !

 

[parsley007]

nope, i usually just touch the inside of the case when i'm working on a pc...seems to discharge the static. at least i think so anyway

 

[NogginBoink]

Those of you who claim to have never had a problem don't know how many components you've shortened the life of by exposure to static electricity.

Always ground yourself and the equipment on which you're working.

 

[Mojoed]

The closest I came to destroying a part(s) was about two months ago. I was replacing my motherboard with an nforce 2 socket A board. After installing the CPU and attaching the HSF, I dropped the damn motherboard on the floor. It sounded horrible. I was so fooking angry. To my astonishment, the thing booted up with no issues at all.

<Homer> I like stories </Homer>

 

[DAGTA]

I haven't. However, a woman I knew in college decided to present a colloquium to students on how to build a PC. She brought in her own PC, was putting it back together in front of the class and a static burst fried her motherboard. She wasn't very happy.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink
Those of you who claim to have never had a problem don't know how many components you've shortened the life of by exposure to static electricity.

Always ground yourself and the equipment on which you're working.

This has been said twice in this thread now... Do you have any proof of this? I have built a few systems that have now been running for several years with no issues. I have also lost motherboards to bad capacitors. Would you tell me that carefully handling my equipment but not wearing a grounding strap is what killed those motherboards? I'm having a hard time believing that this should be a practical concern of mine without seeing some acceptable proof.

 

[Maverick]

Originally posted by: cjgallen
Nope. I even tried destroying a motherboard once by rubbing it all over the back of a subwoofer magnet, IT STILL WORKED!!!!

I call shens on this one.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

never happend to me

but i want one of them EMP thingy's like they had on that jeremy clarkson show (greatest inventions or something?) where they locked a computer in a room and zapped it with EM radiation....that was cool

 

[calyco]

Never but the only time I ever messed up a PC in 10 years was forgetting to put arctic silver on a athlon 1700. Turned it on and *POOF*, cloud of smoke within milliseconds

 

[LongCoolMother]

i used to be extremely careful but now i handle my hardware pretty crudely, but ive never damaged anything as a result. maybe im just lucky? perhaps i have shortened the lifespan of stuff though. ive had some memory go bad on me a couple of times, but rarely.

 

[eplebnista]

I haven't.

 

[Chode Messiah]

i fried my friends ps/2 port once, when i threw a foam ball at his desk and his case was open . not so fun

 

[Ryan]

Humidity is high here - the cahnge of frying your comp. via static is low. I'd even put together a computer on carpet without fear.

 

[zephyrprime]

I think physical damage is MUCH more likely than static. I've chipped cores, shorted pins by touching them, ripped out cable and headers but never killed something with static that I knew of.

 

[phisrow]

I've never actually notably damaged anything; but I'm very glad I took static precautions in one instance: My friend's laptop had a bad DC jack, and the official repair chaps wanted something like 500 for a new motherboard. I figured that it was worth attempting a repair, as the machine was useless otherwise, and hardly worth the cash to fix. This was my first ever laptop, and not mine, so I decided to be really, really careful. Worked on a grounded aluminum table, with wrist strap. As I clicked in to begin work, I got perhaps the worst static shock I've ever had. Luckily, that was the only static of the entire operation.

 

[Pepsei]

yeah, I killed a sound blaster live card once.