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Author Topic: Another Static Electricity Question...  (Read 6625 times)

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Offline outlawal2

Re: Another Static Electricity Question...
« on: May 24, 2010, 04:43:18 PM »
Part of my job is hardware support of PC's and Server equipment.  It is a very good practice to ground yourself when working on equipment.  For those that say you have never hurt your equipment before, you may be correct.. And you also may be wrong. Unfortunately, the damage can be done to chips without being noticeable for months...  (Really, no kidding)  Then all of a sudden the chip goes kaplooey. (Technical term that i may just copyright soon. :O)

Anyway, grounding is a good idea, but if you don't plug the PC into the wall socket you are not truly grounded at all and have wasted your time with the alligator clip...  The ground must be plugged into a wall socket to work, so here is a trick I learned years ago.  Take a standard three prong plug and remove both prongs from it with a pair of pliers.. Be sure to LEAVE the ground prong..  Now when you plug it in, only the ground is plugged in and your machine is fully grounded.  Now take your gator clip and clip it to the frame of the machine.  (Don't trust the floppy drive as you may not have a good connection to the frame... Also you don't know if the floppy is aluminum.. If it is you won't get any ground off it.)
 

Offline outlawal2

Re: Another Static Electricity Question...
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2010, 04:55:08 PM »
Quote from: Super TWiT;560634
By the way, the amiga 500s keyboard is actually grounded to the floppy drive case by way of a screw on cable, so I assume it is a good grounding point.

Good point...  That should be a good ground then... But only if the plug is plugged into the wall...
Hmmmm..  Not really sure how to ground that one without the removable cord. (I have a 2000 and it does have the removable cord)
 

Offline outlawal2

Re: Another Static Electricity Question...
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2010, 06:10:40 PM »
Quote from: Tomas;560643
Either way i have never had hardware except for PSU or hard drives die on me which was completely unrelated. Even the mobo i told about in my previous post i used for years with no stability problems even though both ram, sound card and mobo was all found in trash.
The pc i am currently using has a audigy ZS 2 card i found laying in a muddy water pit and it worked just fine after some cleaning and has not caused any stability issues whatsoever.


Yep and everyone has to make their own decisions about such things, but multiple training courses and books etc. from different companies that actually manufacture the equipment all state that this is a legitimate issue.  My personal opinion is that if the folks that create the stuff says it can be an issue I will defer to their expert advice rather than someone that has simply been "lucky"...  

But who the Hell am I?  We all know those certs and courses and 20+ years of experience is just fluff anyway right?