Has anyone here fried a pc component with electro static discharge

[Seth8530]

just curious to see if anyone here has actually managed to fry anything inside of their pc with an esd. Im asking because one time i was tidying up some wires in my trophy rig while it was running (yea... swell idea wasnt it?) and apparently one of the wires had a bare spot or something and it arced onto the interior of the case.

So i looked up at the screen and saw that it actually froze the screen. and made the pc completely unresponsive. Luckily one hard restart later and everything was golden... So is the risk of ESD death over talked? or am i just a lucky bugger

[Arclight]

Never had it myself, but seen it happen plenty, and heared from first hand experiences even more.

Yeah, components are pretty sensitive. Simply using a bad PSU that delivers voltages that are of the mark too much will destroy a system over time. Sudden spike from esd is more than capable of wreaking some havoc.

[CaptainHaplo]

What you were dealing with wasn't static electricity, since you had a conductor that simply arced to "ground".

Is it overstated? Yes, but with good reason.

The chances of you frying something are pretty low with ESD, mainly because static electricity isn't a huge issue for most people. However, every person is different, some people build it up naturally and never seem to "bleed" it off, getting shocked quite often, while others never build up enough of a charge to ever create that "arc". I have no idea why this is, but basicly, if your one of those people who gets shocked 2 or 3 times a day, don't work on your own PC - because your static charge is likely to be higher than the device your working on can stand.

[krashkart]

I've only [possibly] fried one component in 12 years. I think the risk of plugging a Berg adapter in upside-down (then turning on the machine -- there's a story behind this one) is higher than an ESD happening.

[Seth8530]

please elaborate sounds like quite a story lol


PS i just got posted up to an XO (:

[SteamWake]

Nope but I usually make it a point to take off my shoes when working on a PC.

I have blown a powersupply but yea dressing cables while hot is not a good idea

Oh yea Ive done the plug the power connector backwards thing too.

[HunterICX]

My friend had just installed a new CD-R Drive and I went over to check it out...so we tried to copy some files on a disc went down for something to drink when at the sudden *BANG!*
The drive blew up, the whole Cd tray was black and the disc was blown to tiny bits.

HunterICX

[Seth8530]

haha wow lol, howd he manage that? Ive had cd's shatter in a drive before while i was asleep and it scared the hell outa me lol

[kiwi_2005]

Dumbest thing ive done is push the switch on the PSU how you have a 220v and 174v i think it was, hmm wonder what the 174v is for so switch it to 174v and turned the pc on. Bang! blew the PSU.

[Lord_magerius]

I've been lucky, I've built all the Pc's I've owned since I was about 13 and the worst thing that I've had so far is a disc ripping itself to pieces in the drive. There's nothing like being drunk and diving across the room, with your finger erect, screaming "EJECT EJECT EJECT"
Makes you feel like a fighter pilot

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

Dumbest thing ive done is push the switch on the PSU how you have a 220v and 174v i think it was, hmm wonder what the 174v is for so switch it to 174v and turned the pc on. Bang! blew the PSU.

After a power outage we got a surge when RG&E restored the juice and it blew my PSU. Just a little pop and it was done for...

[Seth8530]

HAHA, when i blew mine it sounded more like a gunshot than a pop. So i thought the whole disk being shredded in the drive was supposed to be a rare occurrence. seems more common than i thought it was.

[kiwi_2005]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

After a power outage we got a surge when RG&E restored the juice and it blew my PSU. Just a little pop and it was done for...

Mine sounded like a gun going off, then smoke came out of the back of the pc that smelt like melting batteries. I panicked and thought oh no you idiot your blown the motherboard, though it was just the PSU. No computer shop in our town so had to travel 60km to the nearest city to buy one.

[convoy hunter]

Originally Posted by Seth8530

just curious to see if anyone here has actually managed to fry anything inside of their pc with an esd. Im asking because one time i was tidying up some wires in my trophy rig while it was running (yea... swell idea wasnt it?) and apparently one of the wires had a bare spot or something and it arced onto the interior of the case.

So i looked up at the screen and saw that it actually froze the screen. and made the pc completely unresponsive. Luckily one hard restart later and everything was golden... So is the risk of ESD death over talked? or am i just a lucky bugger

I have't "kill" any part of my pc with esd yet. But I did burn my CPU because the technician had forgotten to put the cable of the fan in the plug.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by convoy hunter

I have't "kill" any part of my pc with esd yet. But I did burn my CPU because the technician had forgotten to put the cable of the fan in the plug.

Always a good idea to double check just to be sure. Crispy baked CPU's are not very tasty.