When assembling a computer, ESD, especially in winter or in dry environments poses a real threat. Never wear wool when working inside with the mobo. If you don't have an ESD strap, at least touch the case with your other hand before handling ESD sensitive components like the ram, mobo, CPU, vid card , and HDs. Earth ground the case first; that simple touch first technique is effective and can save you hundreds of dollars, and hours of cursing.

When prepping the mobo and other components, be aware of what they are resting on!
NEVER allow to rest on carpet, cloth, or non-ESD plastics!!! The original ESD envelope they came in is best if you don't have a ESD mat. You want the case, the components, your tools, and yourself to all be at the same voltage potential so there can be mo static discharges.

Never use a vacuum cleaner to clean a computer internally, as it can act like a huge static generator!
Compressed air is best.

This may seem paranoid, but it's not. Some components like the CPU can be damaged by a mere couple hundred volts; you can easily generate 5000+V potentials by simply handling non-ESD plastic wrapper, walking on carpet, etc.

Damage may not manifest it's self at once, or as a complete component failure; failure from ESD exposures can show up years later sometimes as well. It can be accumulative too.
Any time your aware of static,your already way over the line.


For those who don't understand the threat ESD poses, I hope this is of help.

Aye, be careful. My friend fried a motherboard last year because of this.

Not something you want to have happen to your brand new mega-buck PC!

I believe i've fried a few things in the past working on them with the tower laying on my bed. Using a strap is easiest to prevent this.

Posted by Kbasa I believe i've fried a few things in the past working on them with the tower laying on my bed. Using a strap is easiest to prevent this.

Stay off of cloth and rugs; place on a wood bench, preferably with a grounded ESD mat. DO NOT use a conductive surface like sheet metal in place of a ESD mat though!

I've always just left the tower plugged in and kept my bare forearm rested on the metal case. Of course you'll want to be careful around the AC side of things.

Posted by west_end_chud I've always just left the tower plugged in and kept my bare forearm rested on the metal case. Of course you'll want to be careful around the AC side of things.

Bad idea. It's too easy to forget to power off the PS, which can result in fried components. Always unplug the machine.

As long as the chassis and your body are at the same potential, you should be alright. It's better though to earth ground the chassis through 1 meg resistor and wear a wrist ESD strap grounded through 1 meg resistor (to avoid electrocution). Most wrist straps have them built in.

The resistive element in the ground loops also helps to further protect the equipment as well by limiting the amount of current that can flow through them from static. Both current and voltage can damage electronics.
That why ESD mats aren't perfect conductors, as well as to prevent electrical shock.

On computers I work on, I made a grounding cord that I use to eliminate (or at least reduce) ESD. Take a regular computer power cord, but cut off the two power prongs, leaving only the round ground pin. This way, no AC goes to the computer, but the chassis is still grounded. You can then either use an ESD bracelet clipped to the case, or touch the case often (although this isn't nearly as effective as using a bracelet / mat).

Posted by ExKa|iBuR On computers I work on, I made a grounding cord that I use to eliminate (or at least reduce) ESD. Take a regular computer power cord, but cut off the two power prongs, leaving only the round ground pin. This way, no AC goes to the computer, but the chassis is still grounded. You can then either use an ESD bracelet clipped to the case, or touch the case often (although this isn't nearly as effective as using a bracelet / mat).

Just "grounding out" when first sitting down by touching the chassis is a big help.
Any level of static awareness is always better than sitting in a wool sweater and polyester pants being dumb and charged.

Rarely is the work I do in need of super close attention to static so normally the wrist strap isn't needed. Whats interesting is that just the grounded ESD mat on the bench really cuts static mischief down a lot. I don't ever draw sparks when sitting down at the bench.

Another quick fix is the wet down a bare wood work bench with an earth ground driven into the wetted surface. Let the water seep in and for a time it will be a good ESD dissipative surface. There are also certain chemical agents that would work well on a bare wood surface for longer protection.

Do all electrical computer work in the bathtub.

Posted by MutantMandias Do all electrical computer work in the bathtub.

Real insight there MM; your ass isn't a learning tool

A low resistance material for a ESD mat is undesirable because it allows a total discharge in very short amount of time.
That means a device can be exposed to damaging current and/or voltage more readily; the goal is to safely bleed off excess charge over a few seconds, and to keep the operator near earth ground potential through a safety resistance load that prevents AC/DC chassis current shocks to ground.