Grounding whil building a pc? How?

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Az3EmX

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Jun 27, 2016
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Hi as the title says i want to know how, i have searched a lot on the internet and i have come across many answers but can someone give me the easiest answer. (Without anti static gloves) And do i really need to ground myself?
 
Solution
Flyfisherman
No. You only need to make sure that You and the chassis have the same electrical potential, which means that any electrostatic load will be att the very same level.

Of course you need to use an esd wrist strap connected to a bare metal of your chassis,
phpuTSfqc80051.jpg


And no carpet nor woll or anything that can give sparks. Any such thing can give you loaded up to 30 000 Volts (very low amps) but this is enough to destroy every electronics.
Actually it is not the voltage load who is dangerous, it is the discharge of this voltage. Even a couple of few hundred volts is enough to destroy sensitive bare components or more often...
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No. You only need to make sure that You and the chassis have the same electrical potential, which means that any electrostatic load will be att the very same level.

Of course you need to use an esd wrist strap connected to a bare metal of your chassis,
phpuTSfqc80051.jpg


And no carpet nor woll or anything that can give sparks. Any such thing can give you loaded up to 30 000 Volts (very low amps) but this is enough to destroy every electronics.
Actually it is not the voltage load who is dangerous, it is the discharge of this voltage. Even a couple of few hundred volts is enough to destroy sensitive bare components or more often: hurt the a little bit, so they after some time will be nonfunctional.
Electrostatic Discharge: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Best regards from Sweden
 
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Solution
Very often people overworry about this more than you need to, but I'll tell you what precautions I take just because I'm that type of person:

1) Avoid wearing socks or shoes. Barefoot is best.
2) I take a grounded piece of metal and connect my wrist strap to it. What is a grounded piece of metal? For instance, I have a barebones computer case with a power supply installed into it, and that power supply is plugged into the wall. Then I connect the wrist strap to the case, or just touch it occasionally.
3) Some people use the computer they are working on to ground themselves and have it plugged in while working on it. If you do it this way, make sure the PSU is off, but it's not the most ideal way, #2 is the best option.

If you have anything with a 3-prong plug, anything metal in your house, you can use that for grounding. It is a very rare situation where you would ever actually damage anything, though.
 
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Well as I agree with most, one must remember; You can never ground yourself and think this is enough to start working with sensitive electronics.
It just doesn't work that way. The important thing - is to make sure that You and the chassis's have the exact same electrical potential.
Period.
Best regards from Sweden

 
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You can ground yourself to a separate object just fine, though. The whole purpose is that your body stays neutral. Some cases are difficult to clip to also.
 
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Stop Here!
This is just wrong!
Don't say this! That is completely wrong!

Just listen to what I'm saying!
Best Regards from Sweden


 
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Wait i dont want to start an arguement just that can i take a piece of metal and hold my left hand to it while i install pc with my right? (WITHOUT EST gloves).
 
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Please elaborate. I am not talking about touching a random object, I am talking about connecting to a random metal object that's grounded. If I'm grounded, how is a charge imbalance going to form on my body? There will not be an excess nor lack of one particular type of charge if I am grounded, and if you don't have an excess or lack of charge, you cannot discharge with another object that has an excess or lack of charge.
 
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Ok. You are grounded let say with zero Volt, hence the other equipment is not, therefore as soon as you touched it will also be at zero volt.
Herein lays the problem: there will be an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) and that is what cause the problem.
Now, even if You don't feel this discharge it still have the potential to damage the electronics.

It is just enough to have lower than 100V even 50V to damage the circuits. You won't feel it nor noticed it.
In an humidity of let say 80% RH in the room, a spark loaded up to 20 000V can go over 20mm, from point to point, however this spark will electrify the surrounding area for several meters and could cause trouble.

Best regards from Sweden :)

 
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Electrons and protons are what matter. If you or the computer is balanced, then there is no strong electric field connecting you to the computer.

Anyway, I might be wrong, but what's your background? Just curious, because what you are saying goes against my logic of charge imbalance and I'd have too difficult a time accepting it.
 
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Grounding yourself ensures that you're at 0 potential. However, if you have a component sitting on a desk (insulated), you don't know what potential that component is at. So there could be a voltage between you and the component. That's why electronics workstations have grounded dissipative mats to put components on, as well as grounded wrist straps.

That being said, I think the chance of a component picking up extra charge is less likely than a person picking up extra charge.
 
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I have never used a wrist strap or otherwise grounded myself when building a computer or replacing parts. That being said, I work on a wooden desk with a wood floor under it, and usually work bare-footed. And I live in a very humid climate most of the year (Texas gulf coast), and to my knowledge I have never damaged any computer parts from static electricity.
 
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Pretty much this. Static is definitely blown out of proportion.

Provided you use common sense, you'll be fine. No carpet, no socks (rubber soled shoes or barefoot). Don't build on metal. Use wood, rubber or, in a pinch, glass. No petting the dog/cat etc while you're building either.

Obviously, if you're in a dry climate, the potential is higher - although it's pretty dry where I am (Calgary) and I've never had an issue.

If you're particularly worried about it, a wrist strap (you can attach it to your ankle to keep it out of the way if you prefer) will give you some added 'security' (I see them more as a placebo effect, personally).
 
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I think shoes are bad to wear since they are insulators. Barefoot is the best.
 
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Good point, Turkey. It definitely depends on the flooring covers you have. If you have carpet, or a rug etc, then barefoot is the only real option. I have laminate (although I had carpet when I built my first rig), so there's very limited potential that rubber soles would assist in generating any static.
 
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I think it's one of those things where it's unlikely to happen, but if it did it would really suck. For example, if you did manage damage a component (CPU, for example), and then you built your computer and nothing happened when you turned it on. It'd be so frustrating trying to troubleshoot it, and even if you concluded that it was a damaged component, you wouldn't know if it was CPU, mobo, RAM, whatever.

When I built my computer, I went barefoot on a linoleum floor, and touched a screw on my case now and then while the PSU was installed and plugged in (but turned off). I had to double check where on my case was actually ground though, by measuring resistance between points on the case/screws and the 3rd prong on the PSU plug.
 
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ESD_4_fw.png

And perhaps once and for all: kill the myth that the chassis ground is as good as earth ground in an electric system like a house or apartment etc.
Well it is for 50-60Hz, but for pulses in the microwave area it is very, very poor.

A microwave puls cannot travel more than a few decimeter (some 5- 10 inches) on a regular round wire before it beamed out into the environment and connect itself to a capacitive object, that can equalize the potential - perhaps to ground, perhaps to the air, maybe a motherboard inside a chassis.

It is wrong to think that "things" should be grounded to the "ground" to be on the safe side. The important thing is that who repair or work with electronics has the very same electrical potential as the work table, computer, tools etc.
Best regards from Sweden

 
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When I am working on company servers, I ground myself to the server rack with a wrist strap, but when I am working on my own pc, I literally just periodically tap the case with my finger to discharge any static before touching any components. I agree that the issue is kinda blown way out of proportion.
 
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That is the problem. People think that this is not an issue nor a problem, then they just continue to work as they did before.
- "Why change things, it has always worked before" kind of mentality.

The big thing is not that electronics break down immateriality, the single most and important problem is called: ESD latence, which means there are for every electrostatic discharge, a faulty to the circuits that will not show itself directly. Things can work for days, months, years and suddenly - bam.

This is very critical and not so easy to spot, yet numerous of PC-builder cannot accept the importance of ESD-protection.
I cannot understand why? An ESD-wrist strap cost less than a Big Mac and take so little time to attach.

Best regards from Sweden
 
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