Poll: Myth or Fact ???

[Czar]

We have all know that static charges damages hardware, but has anyone damaged hardware like that?

 

[odog]

yup... fried a logic board on a HD(i was testing it for RMA anyway) my stupid ass walked up and touched the drive... i then saw the arc of juice come off my finger and hit an IC... poof, the drive spun down and never spun up again.... next, athlon 500@750.... not sure how i did it...touched it and it died.....zero humidity sucks!!

 

[Kitros]

To kill an IC, you need only 1/3 of the zap needed to "see" a spark. Keep that in mind, Pika...

 

[glenn1]

i haven't.... but then again, i take some nice, simple, and reasonable precautions... like not working on my system in a room with deep shag carpeting but otherwise, no, i've never had a problem with ESD.

 

[jsbush]

Don't remeber this, but my dad told me that I've fried a few hard drives when I was younger because I have a lot of static!

 

[Whitedog]

Probably. I have boxes of old cards and stuff laying around (not in static bags of course) that just don't seem to work anymore hehe...

Several old socket7 mobo's too that don't work anymore. hehe

Like I give a rats @ss about them anyway.

The way I see it. I take good care of my NEW stuff I unpackage and install... but by the time it comes out of the computer for upgrade parts, it gets tossed in a box anyway and I don't care if the crap works anymore. hehehehehe

 

[jamarno]

I once zapped a 32K video card through careless handling because one area of the screen developed white spots that couldn't be eliminated. This card probably had 2-micron memory, not the 0.15-micron chips used today, meaning the old chips were probably much more rugged.

 

[compuwiz1]

I was in Europe visiting someone and this person build system on the carpet, with things laying all around. I asked, why do you do this and not use a wrist strap. His reply was, we don't have static electicity here. :Q LOL

Says he's been doing it for years that way. Unbelievable!

 

[Technonut]

ESD is very real, and will fry components. I always wear a cordless anti-static wriststrap. I like the cordless model. It needs to be checked once in a while, and the wrist strap changed, (just the elastic stap) but I like it much better than a corded model.

EDIT: Here is the type that I use. I did not get mine from this company, but it looks like they accept PayPal.

 

[Osangar]

<< To kill an IC, you need only 1/3 of the zap needed to &quot;see&quot; a spark. Keep that in mind, Pika... >>



It's a lot less then that. It's voltage that kills IC's not current, and in some cases 5-10 V applied to the wrong place will destroy an IC. A static discharge that you can see will be at least 5000V (with almost no current and therefor almost no power)

 

[Sunner]

Nope, and I never use wriststraps 'n such.

Before I handle stuff like that, I typically just touch something grounded, and thats it.