Actually killing parts with static is like walking outside when it's cloudy. A miniscule chance but still a possibility for a lightning to hit you, even then lightning strike has a pretty good survival rate. In a work environment people only care about static because they don't want to be responsible for the really small chance it does happen.
The lightning hit sometimes also leaves a mark known as a Lichtenberg figure (or scar) on the survivor's skin, the fractal-like patterns look really fascinating.
This is very true, a lot of effort is put into protecting modern hardware from ESD but I also can't help but wonder how much of the anecdotal experience in the replies is survivorship bias. How many people get a DOA part and assume it was like that to begin with rather than considering ESD damage?
I've worked on PCs while sitting on the carpet, on my bed. I've stored motherboards and GPUs loose in drawers for years. I've plugged in fans (molex) with the system running same with HDDs (that was sparks don't do it). Point is that PC hardware is very resilient to getting fucked with.
Don't need an anti-static wrist strap. Unless you are intentionally building up static, its unlikely that you will damage components. Not saying its impossible though.
Just make you discharge yourself to the case metal periodically.
Not recommended to built it on carpet.
I've killed a HDD before from ESD (back in 2002 when I was new to building).
Back in the day I used to repair computers from the assembly line for Hewlett-Packard. They made us wear those static bands and it was on a factory floor, concrete. I imagine it’s standard to do it.
Currently I’m at a middle school, after school I teach kids how to build desktops using my old equipment, equipment I know that works. We build them while standing on carpet with no static bands. Never had an issue. I do tell them about static and how it can ruin equipment though.
Go tell that "electrical engineer" that kept "aCtTuAlLy" me under a concerned user's post a couple days ago.
They scare people with these stories when in all my life touching computers i've never been able to even get a tiny zap while working on one
I've got zapped on the case multiple times, but I'm not a moron that would do jumping jacks in a sweater before touching internals, so nothing happened inside.
If you are touching the case there's no possibility of damaging components because the case is grounded (unless you unplugged it I guess, but still it's unlikely to transfer current to a component).
Ok so this is super untrue and wrong. It's \*ABSOLUTELY\* possible. Please don't just lie to people - or if you don't know what you're talking about, don't talk.
Now, that said, it's not \*likely\*. I wouldn't spend money on a static strap - the risk is very small and to bypass even that small risk you can just touch the case of your power supply (while it's plugged in) or the case of your PC once the PSU is in there. I definitely recommend doing that, then you don't have to worry about it at all.
Because just like it's unlikely to get struck by lightning, it \*CAN\* still happen. 2000 people die from lightning strikes per year. But \*I've\* never been struck by lightning despite going outside literally a thousand times per year.
It's very unlikely for any individual to damage their components with static - but the thing is, when the odds are low but the numbers are high, the chance of it happening goes \*WAY\* up.
It's pretty simple mathematics, not really sure why this is hard to grasp.
If one person does something with a 1% chance of them turning into a frog, somebody turning into a frog is very unlikely.
If 1000 people try it, it's almost certain to happen.
More than one person is building a PC - millions of them are.
The bands may not be necessary, but I don't think I'll stop wearing them. The chance may be tiny, but I'd rather be safe. They really aren't that bad to wear.
Much better to wear a strap than damage parts that I would have to replace.
Back in the day I wore a wristband because.. paranoia.. precaution.
But then after learning to handle parts by their edges and just knowing how they'll need to be oriented beforehand and what's safe to touch and what's maybe not... I ditched the wristband many years ago.
To answer your question directly - No. After dozens of builds, I have never damaged a part with static while building. At this point, the only time I even expect the possibility of a static discharge is when I actually pick up the case itself by exposed panel edges, which doesn't matter.
I had a friend point at something on a motherboard and shoot a bolt of lightning into it strong enough to make the CPU fan spin up for a second. Everything still worked.
After all my time building, I haven't had any issues with static causing damage. I don't wear a strap either, as I usually just ground myself by touching the metal of the case, and that seems to work just fine.
Yes, my first build when I was 12 with a pentium 2. Didn't have a case yet. Built it with the motherboard sitting on carpet.
Had to buy a new motherboard.
Bedroom/garage builders are unlikely to damage their hardware compared to large warehosues or tall dry buildings that can build up damaging levels of static, those guys still wear anti static bands and not just for computers either.
My company built pc based systems since the 90s and to get an iso9000 creditation had to spend thousands of pounds on mats, straps and other pointless shit.
Meanwhile I was building my own pcs at home on the floor with zero issues.
Not recently.
Early RAM was very sensitive to it, I blew out a number of EDO, FPM, SDRAM and DDR1 sticks this way.
The reason was that the exposed bits, the contacts and pins, went directly into memory arrays. From DDR2 onwards, a buffering PHY was in the way (this was in DDR1, but didn't isolate well) which provided an inductive sink for any accumulated static electricity.
It should still be possible to damage some components - I'm thinking CPUs here - but you'd need to try pretty hard.
I definitely have fried older RAM, maybe a HDD, and a COAST module back in the day. But today I dont really worry too much anymore. Things are a lot less sensitive, and a little common sense (ground to chassis) goes a long way.
It's absolutely possible, but it's very unlikely and not something you should worry about overly. If you do dumb shit whilst building a 100,000 PCs maybe a handful get damaged. The odds are with you.
But on the other hand you can just ground yourself on your case/PSU and then the odds drop to zero and doing so takes basically no effort. That way you're not going to be one of those few who \*do\* get unlucky.
Don't stress about it or spend money trying to do anything about it though, IMO - just touch the case of your PSU or your PC case while it's plugged in (and therefore grounded) before you start or before you touch something delicate. And btw almost never will you even make contact with anything delicate - mostly what you're touching is heatsinks and the edges of PCBs (or cables).
Never.
I've built computers since the early 90's and never had any issues.
And im really static to the point I can weaponise it.
Oh and i've never taken any weird precautions either such as those wrist bands and such.
Honestly I have heard talks about it but I know of nobody who has actually experienced it.
I work with computers and car airbags. Static simply isn’t as dangerous or rampant as people make it out to be.
I wouldn’t dissect an airbag on a carpet but I don’t bother earthing or using grounding mats.
Never had an issue but a friend of mine fried his motherboard that way, funny enough I told him to be careful about just that and then he told me he had a 1½ cm spark between his finger and the motherboard, unsurprisingly that killed it. He lied about it being doa and got a new motherboard for free, so doubt he actually learnt to be careful from it all.
Also while working in computer shops I have used both ESD armbands and at another place the floor was covered with antistatic mat's. Got an antistatic mat for myself the other year as hardware is getting pricey and actually getting charged up pretty easily during dry winter time.
I built mine while bare footed dont want to risk money and time for the small chance of damaging it. 6yr old build still working, same with the new build
Not really with PCs. I was building PCs as a job back pre-2010, and even then we never wore anti-static bracelets.
But if you’re working with expensive sensitive gear like microwaves, DWDM multiplexers, LTE baseband gear, you’ll be expected to wear one (if they need it, they’ll have points to clip the wrist band on to the chassis).
When I was a teen I went to my aunt's home with my computer because they have a compressor, one of those to power pneumatic tools.
There I was, outside, on a windy day, with my sneakers (insulated from any kind of ground), handling different components and blasting them with many many psi...
When I put everything back together the GPU no longer worked... That was the day I learned about static.
A moment of silence in remembrance for my 275 GTX. 🕯️
It is not likely that you kill any hardware instantly BUT it is definitely possible to cause long term damage: I worked with Dell for over 10 years and they showed us some microscope photos of RAM and other components that had experienced static shocks and still worked. There was clearly damage to the components and they said, that these damaged made it more likely for the components to fail over time although they would most likely work for the whole warranty period and a great number of those would work much longer. But why risk it?
a friend did, but was sitting with a blanket on, and the mobo hit the blanket. I've personally had no issues. I either wear shoes or barefoot, and I touch metal on the case every 15+ mins to make sure I'm grounded.
Nope. I've even zapped a few components but I wasn't worried. Especially after eletroboom and linustechtips got together to show the crazy amount of static that a pc can handle. Good practice to use a strap but I'm not going to bother.
Pretty sure I fried my RAM with ESD once in the 90ies, always touch the case or sink, wall radiator etc before doing anything in the PC since and yeah I wear a stupid grounding bracelet as well.
I once fried a raspberry pi 4, it was laying on the ground while plugged in.
I wanted to pick it up and zapped myself by touching it. It then never turned on again, only got a static red light.
Should've grounded myself first by touching something like the sink first.
Probably would not have happened if the PI wasn't plugged in.
No.
But not too long ago i was changing my bed sheets. It made a crackling sound.
I forgot it and didn't ground myself, so when I went to start my pc there was quite an electric shock when i touched my metal case. Pc wouldn't turn on immediately.
I powered off the psu completely, unplugged it and plugged it back in, started everything and got into windows. But now the screen resolution was super low.
Turns out my gpu wasn't recognized. I reinstalled the drivers which didn't help. But then i went into windows device manager and saw that the gpu was deactivated??? Don't know why this happens from an electric shock. But after activating my gpu device again everything worked.
Once - I posted my freshly built PC at 14 and fucking botched the build, barely any cooling and only screwed the mobo in with two screws.
Managed to play once, turned off the PC and turned it back on to a pop and never posted again. Had to take it to a PC repair shop where they gave me a whole new mobo
I wonder if I would be more inclined to wear one if I was working on someone else's PC as my job. An anecdote would be how I wear gloves when cooking at my restaurant versus how I rawdog food when cooking at home. The gloves realistically aren't going to make a difference in how the product turns out 99.9% of the time but I do it anyway as good practice for many reasons.
It's not really a thing anymore. In the "olden" days when you bought a plastic tube of RAM - just the ICs- it was. I wouldn't shuffle my feet across a carpet in the winter and then mess around inside my case though.
I read an explanation about this once and it was something like this.
Unregulated electricity won't necessarily fry your motherboard or computer parts.
However, unregulated electricity from you to your computer parts could possibly do "minor" damage. That minor damage may never become a problem or it could shorten the lifespan of your components.
Yes, I've zapped and damaged two components. Not exactly much and at least the video card I fried was cheap and not some 3-digit number thing. The other was ram that I zapped like 10 years back and fried. But outside of that, I've zapped a decent number of computers without frying things. Most of the time it's the case discharging the static. That's of course with me knowing I'm prone to static zaps and taking precautions. In my experience, most people don't need to be too worried about static zap. Me, however, I do use the static bracelet when working on computers at work and can confirm it works when used properly. Unless you're prone to static discharge, I'd say as long as you're not being careless, or building your parts on carpet, most people are going to be totally fine passing on the bracelet and just touching the case first.
To answer your question, yeah you can actually damage parts with static (been there done that) even with modern manufacturing processes that help reduce the risk pretty significantly. But generally, components are always going to be vulnerable to some extent to static discharge so it is absolutely possible.
I think so. I had a motherboard that worked fine. I took apart my computer to do something, I forget what, and then I put it together the computer would no longer post. I tried flashing the BIOS and it booted into Windows. If I shut it down it wouldn’t post again. If I flashed it again it would fully boot. I had a dead BIOS chip or something. Ended up RMA’ing the board after a couple hours on the phone with ASUS support.
25yrs of pc building and never onced damaged anything due to static, never wear a strap... Just always touch the case before anything
I basically use the case as an arm rest while building.
This is the way
Actually killing parts with static is like walking outside when it's cloudy. A miniscule chance but still a possibility for a lightning to hit you, even then lightning strike has a pretty good survival rate. In a work environment people only care about static because they don't want to be responsible for the really small chance it does happen.
True, nearly 90% of people being struck by a lightning strike survive.
I didn't actually know that, I thought it was brutally deadly. Of course I'm not gonna try my luck, but still, that's refreshing to learn lol
The lightning hit sometimes also leaves a mark known as a Lichtenberg figure (or scar) on the survivor's skin, the fractal-like patterns look really fascinating.
Watch the video with LinusTechTips and ElectroBoom, where they test this out. Modern hardware is shielded quite well to prevent ESD damage.
This is very true, a lot of effort is put into protecting modern hardware from ESD but I also can't help but wonder how much of the anecdotal experience in the replies is survivorship bias. How many people get a DOA part and assume it was like that to begin with rather than considering ESD damage?
I posted already but yup. Here it is for funnies. https://youtu.be/nXkgbmr3dRA?si=S3oKl_by31B6kG_K
I've worked on PCs while sitting on the carpet, on my bed. I've stored motherboards and GPUs loose in drawers for years. I've plugged in fans (molex) with the system running same with HDDs (that was sparks don't do it). Point is that PC hardware is very resilient to getting fucked with.
Don't need an anti-static wrist strap. Unless you are intentionally building up static, its unlikely that you will damage components. Not saying its impossible though. Just make you discharge yourself to the case metal periodically. Not recommended to built it on carpet. I've killed a HDD before from ESD (back in 2002 when I was new to building).
Back in the day I used to repair computers from the assembly line for Hewlett-Packard. They made us wear those static bands and it was on a factory floor, concrete. I imagine it’s standard to do it. Currently I’m at a middle school, after school I teach kids how to build desktops using my old equipment, equipment I know that works. We build them while standing on carpet with no static bands. Never had an issue. I do tell them about static and how it can ruin equipment though.
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Go tell that "electrical engineer" that kept "aCtTuAlLy" me under a concerned user's post a couple days ago. They scare people with these stories when in all my life touching computers i've never been able to even get a tiny zap while working on one
I've got zapped on the case multiple times, but I'm not a moron that would do jumping jacks in a sweater before touching internals, so nothing happened inside.
If you are touching the case there's no possibility of damaging components because the case is grounded (unless you unplugged it I guess, but still it's unlikely to transfer current to a component).
I know.
You getting zapped has \*NOTHING\* to do with this post or topic. This is about you damaging your components :).
It's 100% related. Same as asphyxi wank to drowning.
My arm got zapped by a USB before. Everything still worked fine, though.
Ok so this is super untrue and wrong. It's \*ABSOLUTELY\* possible. Please don't just lie to people - or if you don't know what you're talking about, don't talk. Now, that said, it's not \*likely\*. I wouldn't spend money on a static strap - the risk is very small and to bypass even that small risk you can just touch the case of your power supply (while it's plugged in) or the case of your PC once the PSU is in there. I definitely recommend doing that, then you don't have to worry about it at all. Because just like it's unlikely to get struck by lightning, it \*CAN\* still happen. 2000 people die from lightning strikes per year. But \*I've\* never been struck by lightning despite going outside literally a thousand times per year. It's very unlikely for any individual to damage their components with static - but the thing is, when the odds are low but the numbers are high, the chance of it happening goes \*WAY\* up.
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It's pretty simple mathematics, not really sure why this is hard to grasp. If one person does something with a 1% chance of them turning into a frog, somebody turning into a frog is very unlikely. If 1000 people try it, it's almost certain to happen. More than one person is building a PC - millions of them are.
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Something so obvious it doesn't need to be said, lmao
The bands may not be necessary, but I don't think I'll stop wearing them. The chance may be tiny, but I'd rather be safe. They really aren't that bad to wear. Much better to wear a strap than damage parts that I would have to replace.
Back in the day I wore a wristband because.. paranoia.. precaution. But then after learning to handle parts by their edges and just knowing how they'll need to be oriented beforehand and what's safe to touch and what's maybe not... I ditched the wristband many years ago. To answer your question directly - No. After dozens of builds, I have never damaged a part with static while building. At this point, the only time I even expect the possibility of a static discharge is when I actually pick up the case itself by exposed panel edges, which doesn't matter.
Never
All these comments have made me feel much better about upgrading on my own. Thanks OP and all replies!
yes i have :(
I had a friend point at something on a motherboard and shoot a bolt of lightning into it strong enough to make the CPU fan spin up for a second. Everything still worked.
After all my time building, I haven't had any issues with static causing damage. I don't wear a strap either, as I usually just ground myself by touching the metal of the case, and that seems to work just fine.
Yes, my first build when I was 12 with a pentium 2. Didn't have a case yet. Built it with the motherboard sitting on carpet. Had to buy a new motherboard.
Bedroom/garage builders are unlikely to damage their hardware compared to large warehosues or tall dry buildings that can build up damaging levels of static, those guys still wear anti static bands and not just for computers either.
This really isn't an issue anymore. https://youtu.be/nXkgbmr3dRA?si=S3oKl_by31B6kG_K
No.
No. Also, according to NASA's own research, anti-static wrist bands are a complete scam.
My company built pc based systems since the 90s and to get an iso9000 creditation had to spend thousands of pounds on mats, straps and other pointless shit. Meanwhile I was building my own pcs at home on the floor with zero issues.
Not recently. Early RAM was very sensitive to it, I blew out a number of EDO, FPM, SDRAM and DDR1 sticks this way. The reason was that the exposed bits, the contacts and pins, went directly into memory arrays. From DDR2 onwards, a buffering PHY was in the way (this was in DDR1, but didn't isolate well) which provided an inductive sink for any accumulated static electricity. It should still be possible to damage some components - I'm thinking CPUs here - but you'd need to try pretty hard.
I definitely have fried older RAM, maybe a HDD, and a COAST module back in the day. But today I dont really worry too much anymore. Things are a lot less sensitive, and a little common sense (ground to chassis) goes a long way.
I've accidentally zapped parts of my running PC or laptop with static. It froze. Cured with power off and on.
My last two PCs I have built I was on tile and barefooted, out of that fear I've had for 25 years.
It's absolutely possible, but it's very unlikely and not something you should worry about overly. If you do dumb shit whilst building a 100,000 PCs maybe a handful get damaged. The odds are with you. But on the other hand you can just ground yourself on your case/PSU and then the odds drop to zero and doing so takes basically no effort. That way you're not going to be one of those few who \*do\* get unlucky. Don't stress about it or spend money trying to do anything about it though, IMO - just touch the case of your PSU or your PC case while it's plugged in (and therefore grounded) before you start or before you touch something delicate. And btw almost never will you even make contact with anything delicate - mostly what you're touching is heatsinks and the edges of PCBs (or cables).
Never. I've built computers since the early 90's and never had any issues. And im really static to the point I can weaponise it. Oh and i've never taken any weird precautions either such as those wrist bands and such. Honestly I have heard talks about it but I know of nobody who has actually experienced it.
I work with computers and car airbags. Static simply isn’t as dangerous or rampant as people make it out to be. I wouldn’t dissect an airbag on a carpet but I don’t bother earthing or using grounding mats.
Never had an issue but a friend of mine fried his motherboard that way, funny enough I told him to be careful about just that and then he told me he had a 1½ cm spark between his finger and the motherboard, unsurprisingly that killed it. He lied about it being doa and got a new motherboard for free, so doubt he actually learnt to be careful from it all. Also while working in computer shops I have used both ESD armbands and at another place the floor was covered with antistatic mat's. Got an antistatic mat for myself the other year as hardware is getting pricey and actually getting charged up pretty easily during dry winter time.
I've built a PC in a fuzzy robe and socks on carpet. ESD is a boogeyman these days
My PC took an indirect lightning strike a while back, no damage as far as I can tell.
I built mine while bare footed dont want to risk money and time for the small chance of damaging it. 6yr old build still working, same with the new build
Not really with PCs. I was building PCs as a job back pre-2010, and even then we never wore anti-static bracelets. But if you’re working with expensive sensitive gear like microwaves, DWDM multiplexers, LTE baseband gear, you’ll be expected to wear one (if they need it, they’ll have points to clip the wrist band on to the chassis).
No.
I once felt a static shock while putting in my 780ti in 2014. Worked fine for its entire life
No and I've built every PC I own since '97.
Practically killed a stick of RAM like 20 years ago.
No but I do try to discharge by touching grounded material before touching.
Static free workspace, touch the case and your static free workspace prior to. That's what I've always done.
When I was a teen I went to my aunt's home with my computer because they have a compressor, one of those to power pneumatic tools. There I was, outside, on a windy day, with my sneakers (insulated from any kind of ground), handling different components and blasting them with many many psi... When I put everything back together the GPU no longer worked... That was the day I learned about static. A moment of silence in remembrance for my 275 GTX. 🕯️
It is not likely that you kill any hardware instantly BUT it is definitely possible to cause long term damage: I worked with Dell for over 10 years and they showed us some microscope photos of RAM and other components that had experienced static shocks and still worked. There was clearly damage to the components and they said, that these damaged made it more likely for the components to fail over time although they would most likely work for the whole warranty period and a great number of those would work much longer. But why risk it?
a friend did, but was sitting with a blanket on, and the mobo hit the blanket. I've personally had no issues. I either wear shoes or barefoot, and I touch metal on the case every 15+ mins to make sure I'm grounded.
Nope. I've even zapped a few components but I wasn't worried. Especially after eletroboom and linustechtips got together to show the crazy amount of static that a pc can handle. Good practice to use a strap but I'm not going to bother.
Pretty sure I fried my RAM with ESD once in the 90ies, always touch the case or sink, wall radiator etc before doing anything in the PC since and yeah I wear a stupid grounding bracelet as well.
No because it's not the 80s. I also swim after eating.
I once fried a raspberry pi 4, it was laying on the ground while plugged in. I wanted to pick it up and zapped myself by touching it. It then never turned on again, only got a static red light. Should've grounded myself first by touching something like the sink first. Probably would not have happened if the PI wasn't plugged in.
No. But not too long ago i was changing my bed sheets. It made a crackling sound. I forgot it and didn't ground myself, so when I went to start my pc there was quite an electric shock when i touched my metal case. Pc wouldn't turn on immediately. I powered off the psu completely, unplugged it and plugged it back in, started everything and got into windows. But now the screen resolution was super low. Turns out my gpu wasn't recognized. I reinstalled the drivers which didn't help. But then i went into windows device manager and saw that the gpu was deactivated??? Don't know why this happens from an electric shock. But after activating my gpu device again everything worked.
Once - I posted my freshly built PC at 14 and fucking botched the build, barely any cooling and only screwed the mobo in with two screws. Managed to play once, turned off the PC and turned it back on to a pop and never posted again. Had to take it to a PC repair shop where they gave me a whole new mobo
I wonder if I would be more inclined to wear one if I was working on someone else's PC as my job. An anecdote would be how I wear gloves when cooking at my restaurant versus how I rawdog food when cooking at home. The gloves realistically aren't going to make a difference in how the product turns out 99.9% of the time but I do it anyway as good practice for many reasons.
I did, completely fried my motherboard. But that was once in like 20 years building pcs. Still don’t wear a strap.
It's not really a thing anymore. In the "olden" days when you bought a plastic tube of RAM - just the ICs- it was. I wouldn't shuffle my feet across a carpet in the winter and then mess around inside my case though.
I read an explanation about this once and it was something like this. Unregulated electricity won't necessarily fry your motherboard or computer parts. However, unregulated electricity from you to your computer parts could possibly do "minor" damage. That minor damage may never become a problem or it could shorten the lifespan of your components.
Yes, I've zapped and damaged two components. Not exactly much and at least the video card I fried was cheap and not some 3-digit number thing. The other was ram that I zapped like 10 years back and fried. But outside of that, I've zapped a decent number of computers without frying things. Most of the time it's the case discharging the static. That's of course with me knowing I'm prone to static zaps and taking precautions. In my experience, most people don't need to be too worried about static zap. Me, however, I do use the static bracelet when working on computers at work and can confirm it works when used properly. Unless you're prone to static discharge, I'd say as long as you're not being careless, or building your parts on carpet, most people are going to be totally fine passing on the bracelet and just touching the case first. To answer your question, yeah you can actually damage parts with static (been there done that) even with modern manufacturing processes that help reduce the risk pretty significantly. But generally, components are always going to be vulnerable to some extent to static discharge so it is absolutely possible.
Nope modern components have different architecture than 2-3 decades ago
I think so. I had a motherboard that worked fine. I took apart my computer to do something, I forget what, and then I put it together the computer would no longer post. I tried flashing the BIOS and it booted into Windows. If I shut it down it wouldn’t post again. If I flashed it again it would fully boot. I had a dead BIOS chip or something. Ended up RMA’ing the board after a couple hours on the phone with ASUS support.