Electricity felt after accidentally touched back of video card.

[ojnab]

Hi, I've recently touched the back of my video card by my pinky and i felt some a little electricity, is that harmful? and what was that ?, my computer was turned off when I did that, but the plug of psu is connected and the PSU on switch is turned on(not the rig switch). I did that because one fan wasnt connected so im forced to open again my rig to connect the cable of that chasis fan, and that's it, I've touched the back of my video card for 2-3 secs by my pinky.

What was that ? is that harmful to my video card?? is that ESD ?

TIA, just curious thanks, all answers are well appreciated

 

[Mr Kagouris]

Yes that is electrostatic discharge and can kill your card, that's why you should always ground yourself before touching electronic components. If your card is working you got lucky and it didn't harm it.

 

[InvalidError]

If it was static electricity, the "electricity felt" should be momentary just like any other static discharge you should already be familiar with. If it was a continuous pulsing, that would be mains current leakage indicating that your computer chassis is not being properly grounded by the power cord, possibly due to weak or missing power outlet ground.

Most of the back of your PC is sheet metal, it is unlikely that static would hit something ESD-sensitive and most external IOs have at least some degree of ESD protection anyway.

 

[Mr Kagouris]

Seeing as how he was plugging in a case fan when this happened I don't think he means the I/O by "back of the video card".

 

[ojnab]

Seeing as how he was plugging in a case fan when this happened I don't think he means the I/O by "back of the video card".

Im referring to the back side of the video card, the back with chips, .i touched the case for almost 2 secs bfore i touched the back of my video card, it still harmful ?

 

[Mr Kagouris]

ESD is extremely harmful yes, but as I said if it's still working you got lucky. Sounds like your case is not getting properly grounded though.

 

[ojnab]

If it was static electricity, the "electricity felt" should be momentary just like any other static discharge you should already be familiar with. If it was a continuous pulsing, that would be mains current leakage indicating that your computer chassis is not being properly grounded by the power cord, possibly due to weak or missing power outlet ground.

Most of the back of your PC is sheet metal, it is unlikely that static would hit something ESD-sensitive and most external IOs have at least some degree of ESD protection anyway.

Im referring to the back side of the video card, the back with chips, .i touched the case for almost 2 secs bfore i touched the back of my video card, it still harmful ?

 

[ojnab]

ESD is extremely harmful yes, but as I said if it's still working you got lucky. Sounds like your case is not getting properly grounded though.

Why not properly grounded ? my rig is standing on a tiles. how do i make it grounded?

 

[InvalidError]

Im referring to the back side of the video card, the back with chips, .i touched the case for almost 2 secs bfore i touched the back of my video card, it still harmful ?

The time is irrelevant, you could touch the card all day long and not cause any additional damage. If there is damage from ESD, that damage - if any - occurs in the initial microsecond when the spark jumps from your finger to the card.

On the back of the card, there is maybe a 95% likelihood that you will touch a power or ground pad or copper pour before anything else. It is nearly impossible to damage components on a card that way. Even if you touched a signal trace, nearly all CMOS IOs have at least minimalist ESD protection in the form of the CMOS input/output parasitic body diodes that can handle a fair amount of ESD once the parts have been soldered to a PCB and those traces connect two or more chips together, which means the ESD gets shared by multiple devices too.