antistatic in computer

coolkid

Hi,
i am about to start building pc at moment but dont have an antistatic wrist band to prevent this. I was wondering if medical rubber gloves prevent antistatic doing any harm to components. if not can you suggest any other way.Thanks in advance

sebastianlieken

ive built my share of pc's n mess around with my current one whenever im bored...ive NEVER used an antistatic thing magiger... useless IMO. just dont wear fleese or nylon or asnything silly like that when ur building. common sense FTW!:pac:

theyre over rated. ive stuck a screwdriver in my pc while it was still on before, accidentally hit it off the graphics card, *BIG BLUE SPARK*, still runnin...nothin happened. *phew*

seriously, theyre over-rated

PogMoThoin

I usually build beside a radiator and touch it fairly often. Never had or needed a wristband.

Honestly, the chance of static is very slim, just dont go sliding around on the carpet in your socks first

TerrorFirmer

As above I just touch a radiator to ground myself, certainly never used a wristband. The liklihood of static damage is very slim, unless you've been....touching yourself all over.

Virgil°

You're grand,ive never worn one.....just dont go rubbing cats off yourself.

mathias

Its clear that very few people here understand whats going on in the case of ESD.

First off , in most cases , bacause the parts get to you in anti static packaging and because PC cases are conductive , the likelihood of you damaging a part in the short time between removing it from the package and installing it is greatly reduced.

Any insulator in the area though will create a charge , ie carpets , wooly jumpers , plastic shoes , all that good stuff , if the charge gets big enough it can easily damage components , the most commonly damaged components are memory sticks, so to the OP , medical rubber gloves are absolutely the last thing you want to use , thats mental !!

How many memory problems do you see on here , its very common , and 90% of memory that fails on install is because of ESD damage.

Just ground yourself by touching a radiator or the PC case first , in most cases that should be enough ,
If you want to be absolutely sure that you wont damage a part , then wear a wrist strap , thats guaranteed to work ,

requiem1

mathias wrote: »

How many memory problems do you see on here , its very common , and 90% of memory that fails on install is because of ESD damage.

Just ground yourself by touching a radiator or the PC case first , in most cases that should be enough ,
If you want to be absolutely sure that you wont damage a part , then wear a wrist strap , thats guaranteed to work ,

Ages ago there was a poll on this and someone posted a link to a test on this subject and it was concluded that there was no way anyone could damage their computers with the amount of static buildup from the activity of general computer building. I believe that the cpu is the most sensitive to ESD damage but I didn't think memory was that bad:eek:

mathias

someone posted a link to a test on this subject and it was concluded that there was no way anyone could damage their computers with the amount of static buildup from the activity of general computer building.

I know ESD damage happens easily , I wish it didnt , and its easily done when building a computer , the amount of memory returns is more than enough proof of that ....



I spent a good number of years in Semiconductor test , ESD co-ordination being a big part of that , Believe me , it happens , almost all memory chips returned for failure analysis show distinct ESD damage.

The problem here is that the environment you work in plays a big part , any two insulators rubbing together makes a big charge , touch the wrong part of a component and it blows instantly , depending on the charge buildup , you wont necessarily hear or see anything , it just wont work , you wont know its ESD damage , you just have a bad part .... so the typical home user would never know if he caused the damage or not , its just a bad part as far as the builder is concerned.

Different devices have different ESD tolerances , most have protection circuits built in , and can be handled with quite a large charge , however memory chips have one of the lowest tolerances there is , particularly in the clock circuitry , and this is invariably where the damage is done.

Touching a radiator or the PC case regularly will dissipate any charge build up on your person , so in most cases people get away with it ,

The only way to be really sure of not causing damage however , is to wear the strap.

requiem1

mathias wrote: »

Different devices have different ESD tolerances , most have protection circuits built in , and can be handled with quite a large charge , however memory chips have one of the lowest tolerances there is , particularly in the clock circuitry , and this is invariably where the damage is done.

never knew thanks for that, at least i won't i'll be more careful in future and won't brush my dogs with my ram as i've become so accustomed to

Deliverance XXV

I own a anti-static wrist strap but TBH I never use it. I find it too restricting. However, I do touch the unpainted section of a radiator.

Anti

If your wearning runners you are already grounded if your standing on tiles or wood. Not so much with carpet. Also yoru pc case is earthed, just tape off it every now and again to discharge yourself.