Gadget show £500 PC

[tw67]

was employed by ibm in the manufacture/debug of computer motherboards, industry takes static seriously, anti static overalls, anti static flooring,work benches grounded, anti static workbench mats and anti static wristbands and heel straps, seen videos of static damage and would advise anyone touching puter parts to be protected

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by Paddy1

Been building PC's for about 14 years and I've never owned an anti static wrist strap, mat or anything else. I've made a habit of touching the radiator pipes before hand and never zapped anything Emperor style yet.

Next weeks tough lappys test does look fun

Static damage doesn't always just zap things straight away. It can take a while to see the effects, as it can degrade the components etched into the IC's.

EDIT: You should listen to what Zingle says! I've been an electronics repair engineer for 11 years and can confirm he's correct about the static damage.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

... I am amazed people pay hundreds of pounds on componants and wont spend 2 quid on a wrist band its just crazy
A very frustrated zing mutters under his breath

My friend says that his girlfriend sometimes puts a chain around his neck and attaches it to the metal bedpost. She must really worry about static electricity...

...although it must be difficult to insert the processor while in handcuffs...

well it would be fun trying lol lol

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

Well given the fact that almost every component I have ever owned asside from some IBM hard drives (60GXPs thats right the famous faulty ones) and an old seagate drive I havent had a component fail on me, they are all still running in various incarnations right now.
So considdering the oldest of these machines is an 8 year old IBM Cyrix MII 266 machine with a processor not known for its amazing build quality or longevity is one of those machines still running I'd say that is a pretty good testemony to my previous statement that I have never damaged a component by not observing antistatic precautions.

must be the rubber suit you wear

If static wasnt a concern manufacturers wouldnt go to extreme lengths and cost to protect against it

Ive had this discussion a few times on this forum and tbh im bewildered by the attitude "well it still works it must be ok and the anti static warnings are rubbish" still its upto the individual I shall carry on with my business practices and im sure they will theirs. I always try my best to offer the best I possibly can to a customer and will continue to because I love computers and get a buzz when clients enjoy the benefits of what ive sown

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Ok then you must be right and everyone who actually works in proper enviroments and companies who spend millions on developement must all be wrong
Some of those componants may well have not worked at its full potential so its not testimony at all

---------- Post added at 09:52 ---------- Previous post was at 09:45 ----------

http://www.static-sol.com/library/ar...ESD_damage.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_discharge
http://www.ce-mag.com/99ARG/ESD%20AssIntro169.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/electrostatic-discharge
http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,kb=PalmSupportKB,CASE=obj(8009),ts= Palm_External2001
http://www.nechapter-esda.org/ne_esd.html
http://unitekeapro.com/pages.php?id=18
http://www.cabot-corp.com/cws/busine...7?OpenDocument (please read this one)



do I need to find more? I am amazed people pay hundreds of pounds on componants and wont spend 2 quid on a wrist band its just crazy
A very frustrated zing mutters under his breath

Couple of years back i was fitting a stm4 card "2.4 gig" in a working mux. I was in a rush so did not use my anti static cord and strap. The outcome was a fried 2.4 gig card and a mux that shut down.

Cost of this stupidity. Very large due to new card,reprograme of mux, Compensation to a large business customer.

So for those of you who have had all these years of experience and know better than everyone else i hope you remember this story when you finally and you will blow something because you did not do the right thing.

shame about the fry dude but it does prove the point somewhat

[Hom3r]

I worked for eight years in a major electronics company. Some of the job involved programming computer chips (EPROMs, EEPROMS ROM), these where programmed in an EPA (Electro-static discharge Protected Area).

All the chips came in ESD protected bags which were not allowed to be open unless I was in the EPA and wearing a ESD strap which was plugged in to a monitor, if it screamed at us I would immediatley pull my hand from the chips and adjust the strap until the alarm stopped. (these also monitered the bench aswell.

Many time did some engineer walk across the nylon carpet hold a chip in his hand, with no protection.

I was trained in this company by a company call Vermasion, I used to callibrate the static monitors.

Not all computer chip will be damaged by static, if a chip is damaged by static, it will either stop working imediatley, or the damage will be latent (IE the device will fail eventually), I saw photos of static damage it looked like a phot of a mountian range, (I'll try and find some photo's to upload)

I would always use a wrisp strap, and strongly recommend that you use one.

try this link

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...aining/Photos/

theres some pics in my links of that dude but you missed out the reduced performance that could mean the chip still works but at a reduced efficiency and evidence of this included in my links lol

[Hom3r]

also download the ESD Control Handbook from the site, it shows the voltages generated by static

m8

---------- Post added at 13:29 ---------- Previous post was at 13:29 ----------

This is one arguement the zingle cant really lose cuz basiacally theres is no evidence to counter this (unless of course its bull plop evidence )

[pop80_uk]

Totally agree with zingle regards the static issue! Listen to him!

Also seperate note did anyone hear the guy who was building the PC last night on the gadget show say Ive been building PCs for years, then when he was building it he was finding it really rather hard and did not seem to know what he was doing?!
Also 512mb RAM! 1Gb would have made a HUGE difference!

Interesting but ultimately naff program!

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by pop80_uk

Interesting but ultimately naff program!

There seems to be a niche in the market for a decent IT-related show. I can't think of any that aren't or weren't cringeworthy.

ITV used to do have a show called The Net or something similar, which used to bring me to tears it was so dull and uninteresting. Gamesmaster with Dominic Diamond was almost bearable, but that was just for gamers... and kid gamers at that!

Something that covers more than just video games, without being patrionising or downright naff would be a welcome relief.

We were shown a resister at the Cable & Wireless college Which had been tested first to check its resistance, then a static discharge is applied and the resister is rechecked and always show a big difference in value. My point is if you change the value of a resister you can change a power supply rating very easily by changing that resisters value. Wonder what would happen if it changed that much it fried something ?