Ever fried hardware from static electricity?

T

thehum

Weaksauce
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Jul 8, 2006
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Out of curiosity, I'm wondering if anyone's ever definitively fried a piece of hardware from a static shock. I've fried hardware in other newb ways (dropping screws on mobo while on, incorrectly installed GPU backplate) but never from static. Though I do always make sure to discharge myself before touching any hardware, especially in the winter.

I've only heard one story where my pc technician friend's relative was so excited about building his pc that he walked across his shag carpet apartment with bare mobo in hand only to find that it didn't boot. (of course the mobo could just have been DOA).
 
Yup, did it to a 256Mb stick of PC2700. Was working fine when I took it out, placed it on a table and zapped it before putting it back in. Completely dead after that.
 
When I was I think 15 or 16 I fried a ram stick. That was before I learned the touch the metal on your case trick.

I've also bent a pin on a intel cpu thus making it unusable.

I think those are the only 2 things I've ever for sure broke.
 
I think I killed a stick or two of 512MB DDR PC3200 RAM by simply placing it next to a DVD player that was on, but I'm not 100% sure now that I think back to it. :p I RMA'd the RAM though, that's for sure!
 
Not yet.
I'm always very careful when building. Power off computer anytime I'm working inside of it even if it's just screwing/unscrewing. Work on a table not over carpet. Always touching computer case for static discharge. Taking parts out of packaging only when working on said table.
 
Built my very first computer when I was 17.

AMD Athlon 2700+ XP
Chaintech Mobo
768MB RAM
Radeon 9600XT.

I could finally play CS:S!

And I built it in the kitchen, and wires were hanging everywhere. The phone was ringing, and I ran to go answer it, and I went to jump over the Ethernet cord (everything is plugged in and I'm playing CS:S to test if everything is working) and I definitely miscalculated the jump and pulled the computer off the kitchen table and it hit the tile floor.

The case was bent to the left like 10-15 degrees.. almost like the leaning tower of pisa.

But back on topic: No.
 
Friend of mine stuck a processor we knew was working into a block of styrofoam. Don't ask me why he did it, but it destroyed the processor.
 
I've touched a laptop with static once and rebooted it. Never fried anything with static though.
 
In our labs here at work, we have a TDR probe that will blow up from ESD (static) if you look at it funny. One of the few times we sit down, ground ourselves to the workstation, use the static wrist strap, etc. Costs about 9K to have it rebuilt.....not that I'd know that from personal experience.....:rolleyes:

ESD issues are much better than they once were; IC guys know all about protection diodes right at the die contacts in modern IC's and you'd really have to try to slag one outright.

Probably a bigger issue is parts that don't get "blown up" outright but do take an ESD beating and have their gate oxides damaged, for example. Shorter life / out of spec performance / unexplaned failure down the road is what you can expect here.

Moral of the story - it pays to be careful......:cool:
 
ive never had any problems... but then again i dont build my computer on the carpet or wear one of those wooley jumpers like your grandma knits and gives you for xmas
 
Co-worker of mine shared a story, where some big name company was investigating why some specific controller in some specific plane was failing after only 5yrs on the field... they traced it down to ESD. Corrected the procedures, replaced all the affected parts, and those planes are still flying fine today, 15yrs later. :p

ESD has a latent effect most of the time, so why risk it?
 
I fried an old processor once...

I can't remember what the occasion was, but for some reason I took the whole (working) machine apart, and when I put it back together it didn't work anymore. It was a while ago so I don't remember the specifics, but I think it was the processor.

I had just built a new 1.83 Ghz box though, so frying my old 500 Mhz processor didn't bother me all that much...
 
I've never had a problem with frying anything via static electricity. Though I'm usually futzing with my computer in bare feet so I'm probably grounded.
 
I simply don't touch anything. Ever.

:p But no I haven't had the misfortune.
 
A lot of people play the game when they use compressed air(from an air compressor) to blow out their systems. See it a lot here at my workplace. I think a lot of people don't understand that compressed air carries a positive charge. Usually the konForm will save you, but i would hate to find out the hard way.

Never have zapped anything, thankfully.
 
quisman said:
A lot of people play the game when they use compressed air(from an air compressor) to blow out their systems. See it a lot here at my workplace. I think a lot of people don't understand that compressed air carries a positive charge. Usually the konForm will save you, but i would hate to find out the hard way.

Never have zapped anything, thankfully.
Click to expand...

Is this true ? Ive cleaned dozens of pc's w/ compressed air, seems like its better than a vacuum. Some of them are really old too and still tickin' (athlons, orig celerons etc)
 
A vacuum is a deadly carrier of positive charge, but compressed air does carry a charge, but miminmal and if you think about it when blowing out a system your possibility of ground short is the distance of your attachment to the comp...which is usually a good foot or so. Where as a vacuum is pretty much hovering over w/ the occasional oops i touched it :)
I use 115 psi compressed air quite often but from about 1 to 2 feet.
 
I've never killed hardware through static electricity. I've been pretty good with computer parts; although every time I have to reseat something I always cringe at the sound of the mobo crackling. I feel like I'm using too much force, but if I don't , the component simply won't go in.
 
A lot of people play the game when they use compressed air(from an air compressor) to blow out their systems. See it a lot here at my workplace. I think a lot of people don't understand that compressed air carries a positive charge. Usually the konForm will save you, but i would hate to find out the hard way.
Click to expand...
What?? I've always used an air compressor to dust my old SocketA machine out and I've never had any problems doing that. o_O
 
LOL, all i'm saying is compressed air DOES carry a positive charge :)
not saying it's gonna fry ur machine, but if the wind is southwest at 15mph on a sunday in late october standing on one foot......i'm not tellin, just sayin ;)
 
I haven't had anything die due to static electricity yet *knock on wood*. In fact, I had a 6800GT that started working after I dragged the card across carpet.
 
A long time ago (17 years ago?) - I went through training to become an Apple certified technician. We got watch a video (VCR!) that had the Woz on it. It discussed ESD and how you might not know the damage you caused.
They basically traced down some computer glitches (random crashes, memory problems, etc) to damaged circuits. I think they used X-Rays or some other tech to actually see the ESD damaged circuit.
On the damaged systems, everything worked fine most of the time. The problem would occur if you hit the right spot of memory or accessed the fried transistor.
Anyone need their Mac 68000 system repaired? What about their old Laserwriter? :) Somewhere, I probably still have my certificates...
 
NEVER had a problem... and mind you i've built a lot of my rigs in my room which is covered in carpet.. u just have to ground yourself before u start working.
 
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