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Static Electricity and computer components

M

Morrisvald

n00b
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
62
Hi,

I installed my gtx card and a aftermarket cooler today , I was quite careless about the static electricity and accidently touched the sensitve side gtx card whie working in the computer.
(The computer was placed on some cloth to prevent scratches on the chassi.)

I also removed the termal paste from the cpu with some paper and lint free cloth and installed the other cooler.

The computer seems to work fine, but I have beed reading alot about the dangers when working with internal parts. Do you guys think I could have damaged anything?
Can static damge decrease the lifetime of internal components...?

I never cared about touching some radiator before working with the components.

Thank you!
 
As long as you weren't rubbing your wool socks on the carpet while you were working on it, it is probably fine.
 
You probably didn't damage anything.

Static also depends a LOT on your environment. Some places where it's really really dry, that can cause a lot more static than normal. In those situations you can usually feel static when you walk on the floor barefoot or if you pet a cat, etc.

Here in the bay area, California, it's not super humid but it is rarely super dry either. I can't say I've EVER had an issue with static and there have been plenty of times when I'm lazy working with stuff on the carpet, etc.
 
Static electricity doesn't always hurt computer equipment. More often than not it doesn't negatively effect hardware. I've actually combed a long haired cat with a 7900GTX and then rubbed it on the carpet with no ill effects. Once after being recently grounded someone handed me a 10/100 Intel PCI NIC card and the very instant it touched my hand a painful arc of static electricity followed by a popping sound was heard which totally friend the card. If its working I wouldn't worry about it. However in the future I'd be more careful about how you approach working on your machine.
 
If you didn't get a zap of static electricity, chances are you're fine. If everything works, I wouldn't be worried about it.
 
it could potentially decrease however, thats rarely the case. As the others have said that you would have noticed right away. Generally anything that has been zapped will be burnt out or slightly cracked if its working I wouldn't worry about it too much, however if its giving you issues then it is a possibility. I had a card with a zapped Capacitor that worked fine for years, it just didn't like newer games.
 
Morrisvald said:
do you think I should get an anti static wrist band?
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that in many cases that can actually make things worse and/or more dangerous. You will be grounded, but that also means you are an easy path to the ground for anything else that isn't grounded. In some cases that can cause an exchange of static charge that would not have otherwise occurred. Also, if you were to work on a CRT monitor or another component that retains an electrical charge, your risk of electrocution jumps up significantly if you use a grounding strap.
 
Dan_D said:
......... I've actually combed a long haired cat with a 7900GTX and then rubbed it on the carpet with no ill effects..........................................................................
Click to expand...

I LOL'ed Dan.

Why were you combing said cat with a 7900GTX is another story.

I always ground myself and use static band, but sometimes I have not. Never had an ill effect on the hardware. I wouldn't worry much about it.
 
pc1x1 said:
I LOL'ed Dan.

Why were you combing said cat with a 7900GTX is another story.

I always ground myself and use static band, but sometimes I have not. Never had an ill effect on the hardware. I wouldn't worry much about it.
Click to expand...

I was actually trying to kill the card. In the end it took rewiring the PCI-Express 6 pin connectors all backwards to fry the damned thing. :eek:
 
i've never seen a failure due to "static" electricity. I did see some memory destroyed though when one of the metal heat spreader corners touched the inside of a molex connector.

the wrist bands have to be used right. had to bite my tongue at seeing an appliance repairman replace a circuit board on a refrigerator. (found they cost about $100, will replace it myself the next time :( ). He used a wrist band which grounded on the refrigerator which was unplugged, so there was no true ground.

I think the wrist bands also include a resistor to prevent lethal voltages, but the A+ course was a LONG time ago.
 
Environment definitely matters for the amount of static electricity. I live in the Seattle area (humid) and it's simply not a problem here; I can't collect a static charge even if I try. When I go up to visit my family in Alaska in the winter (dry), I can develop a static charge hard enough to hurt in two steps across carpet with my socks on. I read an article that IT in Antarctica (very very dry) is pure hell and laptops don't last longer than two weeks.

I don't use static bands and haven't lost anything to static electricity yet. What I do is plug the PSU of the computer I'm working on into the wall without turning it on, and touch the side of the PSU repeatedly while I'm working in the computer. From what I understand, this grounds the PSU, and by touching the PSU I'm making myself neutral with respect to the charge of the computer (I'm not expressing this well because I'm not an electrician).
 
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