Quick reply needed- static with ram..

dawballz

Installing my new RAM..
How do I make sure I'm not all jizzed up with static leccy?



ps. I have no anti-static wrist band, no radiators, but I do have an immersion(?) heater. I presume the copper pipes leading into that should be earthed yeah?

RuggieBear

touch something metal

dawballz

Anything?

RE*AC*TOR

touch the screws on the side of an electricity socket... they're earthed AFAIK

RuggieBear

tbh i usually just use the side panel of my pc

dawballz

RuggieBear wrote:

tbh i usually just use the side panel of my pc

Tis a laptop..

RuggieBear

dawballz wrote:

Tis a laptop..

lol...sorry!

dawballz

Hmmm, ok got the ram installed ok.
Doesn't seem to be much faster, but is there anything I should do to test out the ram?
Apart from just open up photoshop etc.

Maybe I should have went for faster ram.

In it now is 1280MB of pc2700(133mhz) 200pin ddr sodimm ram.

ShiverinEskimo

I honestly don't think I have ever earthed myself when performing surgery on me mochine...Has anyone here ever actually lost hardware due to static discharge??

dawballz

No, I've done it years ago plenty of times, but this ram cost me loads, and I had to pay for it, so I really didn't want to be senseless about it.

Worked out good for me.

Mad Mike

Depending on what programs you are running you need a certain amount of Ram to keep your maching running happily. If you have too little ram your machine will start to use Hard disk rather than ram and your machine will slow down dramatically. Adding more ram than you need won't actually speed anything up but it will allow you to run bigger programs or open more programs at once.

512MB is a minimum I'd reccomend with windows XP but if you use large programs (especially modern games) 1024 will make life a lot sweeter.

Electronics manufacturer are paranoid about static with good reason: Firstly its a statistical thing if you make a million PCBS and take no precaution a percentage of them will get zapped. Secondly static can cause latent damage where a chip appears to work but will fail once the product is shipped needing an expensive return to factory.

uberpixie

ShiverinEskimo wrote:

I honestly don't think I have ever earthed myself when performing surgery on me mochine...Has anyone here ever actually lost hardware due to static discharge??

Once sparked a hard drive and I mean sparked with a pop!

Big bright spark of static, but luckily the hard drive still worked and works to this day. Was very lucky.

My friend on the other hand lost a 120 gig by sparking it. So yeah static can kill parts if you are unlucky.

Best thing to have is a lamp with a metal base plugged into a wall socket but no turned on for discharging yourself before you attack a pc.

JackKelly

touch a tap. All plumbing is earthed.

Khannie

dawballz wrote:

is there anything I should do to test out the ram?

memtest is your friend (google it). It performs a thorough check on your ram. Always useful when you buy new sticks.

mp3guy

I got a good length of normal wire, bared both ends, tied one end to the metal part of a raditor, and one to my ankle, not over my sock, seems to earth pretty well.