How to prevent static electricity when handling a mobo

[Mukachaka]

It's a 2nd build but Im too sensitive about static electricity because my first pc passed away so fast. Now my hand is either so dry or sweaty. How condition of hand can handle a mobo safely ?

 

[margrave]

Get and use a ground strap.

 

[engineer5261]

Dry hands preferred but get a grounding wrist wrap as margrave suggested. Should only be a few dollars, you can ground the other end of the strap by clipping it to the case of your PSU (as the case is grounded).

 

[Eximo]

Simple things to add:

Don't wear loose clothing, don't wear synthetics. Helps with static build up and prevents accidental drops by getting clothing snagged.
Don't wear shoes (they insulate you from the ground and make it easier to build up a charge by moving around on carpeted floors).
Avoid carpeted floors, though this is less serious.

I am not a fan of ground straps (more properly named ESD strap) they limit your movements and if you aren't used to them, it can be easy to make a blunder. Ground strap is a misnomer, you don't have to be grounded to eliminate potential differences.

A simple procedure for handling components. Touch the anti-static bag before touching a component that resides inside. An extra step would be to touch the chassis and the anti-static bag at the same time. Touch the metal chassis before letting the component touch the chassis. (elbows while installing cards is a common one I use)

When handling the components, don't touch surface components. Try to handle the edges (not connectors) The edges should expose the ground plane of the cards.

When handling motherboards, I find it is usually easiest to handle them by their heatsinks.

About two decades and I haven't had a system die on me yet. (Except during the capacitor plague years, but then computers were dying left and right)

 

[Eximo]

Dry hands preferred but get a grounding wrist wrap as margrave suggested. Should only be a few dollars, you can ground the other end of the strap by clipping it to the case of your PSU (as the case is grounded).

The case is only grounded if attached to ground. PSUs with a physical switch sort of allow this. Power supplies that don't have one, shouldn't be plugged in. (Though I would not plug in a power supply while building at all) Then the chassis is floating, but that is okay. The idea is to get rid of potential difference between the components. At that point you are just treating the chassis as a common zero point.

This comes from schematics where chassis is always shown as a ground. This only applies when the system is plugged into a socket with an earth ground.

Actually grounding something can be dangerous as well. The potential difference between something you've just unboxed and ground might be huge and create a big discharge. Whereas having everything floating until you do plug it in means that everything now has a common ground and dissipation should be safe.

All this is going overboard. You have to really shock things these days to create some damage. USB ports are a bit susceptible. Exposed ram chips to some extent. Though any with heatspreaders is fairly safe to handle.

 

[synchroman]

Not only is static hazardous to mobo it is so true for any electronic device. Before touching any device, cell phone, computer device, device in car discharge yourself by touching a grounded object.
A static free environment is great for bench work but this is not available in everyday environments.
As a digital tech since the 60s I learned this as best practices, always discharge before touch any electronic device.
Even back in the days of transistors & diodes it was a problem but it did not become evident until sometime later. i.e. the life of the components was shortened with failure later in time.

 

[jackthelad1971]

without wanting to be annoying - just how real is this nowadays? I've been building PCs for years (20+) I've never used a wrist strap, and I've never fried anything. It would be great to see an actual scientific study into the amount of electricity we're talking about here, and the tolerances of modern computer parts. I mean really - a motherboard so sensitive that it can't cope with a zap from a human finger? c'mon - I just don't believe they are that sensitive. Of course its hard to argue with "better safe than sorry" - but that shouldn't take the place of good science...lets investigate it?

 

[Rexer]

All these guys are right. I got careless and anxious, lost a few motherboards because I wasn't properly grounded, too. I grounded myself (with just my hand) to the case. This was a bad idea. I also shorted a processor.
By all means, use a ground strap like everyone suggests. Make sure you're case is properly grounded too. Now days, I attach the PSU to the case with the power cord and keep the power off. I don't hook up any components to PSU. This way I'm assured I have ground with no electricity.
The last thing you want to see, feel or hear is a static zap. It really zaps the life out of ya, too. Most of the times there's nothing indicating it's been zapped.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Everything stays inside an ESD safe bag (or other packaging, like DIMM clam-shell packages) unless I am at the computer, and before I open it or handle any component I have discharged to the case by touching it. It doesn't have to be grounded, I'm just equalizing charges between myself and the case.

Everybody thinks about the spark discharge as the way something is damaged but there's another way. Everything has an electromagnetic field surrounding it and it builds up as it moves about or rubs against something else. With synthetic clothing in dry atmosphere a field of hundreds of thousands of volts builds instantly just by standing up from your chair. That field alone can cause latent damage to some very sensitive components so that is why you should always 1)keep everything in a bag and 2) keep yourself charge-neutral with respect to the case (and everything installed within it) by touching the case as you move about. So it's either in an ESD bag or in my hand as I'm putting in/taking it out of the case and I'm always in contact with the case.

A wrist strap makes that easy to do, so if you do this a lot and can't remember to keep yourself in contact just wear one.

That said, I do believe that PC sub-assemblies are designed with full knowledge that amateur techs with very little practical experience will be assembling them into systems and so have been designed with a lot more protection than in the early days. I just love the YouTube Box Opening reviews where the reviewer takes it out of the ESD package while shuffling around with it in his hands pointing out features...even rubbing it against his shirt. If they were super sensitive to ESD, there would be a lot more Part II's with sad endings.

 

[Rexer]

Everything stays inside an ESD safe bag (or other packaging, like DIMM clam-shell packages) unless I am at the computer, and before I open it or handle any component I have discharged to the case by touching it. It doesn't have to be grounded, I'm just equalizing charges between myself and the case.

Everybody thinks about the spark discharge as the way something is damaged but there's another way. Everything has an electromagnetic field surrounding it and it builds up as it moves about or rubs against something else. With synthetic clothing in dry atmosphere a field of hundreds of thousands of volts builds instantly just by standing up from your chair. That field alone can cause latent damage to some very sensitive components so that is why you should always 1)keep everything in a bag and 2) keep yourself charge-neutral with respect to the case (and everything installed within it) by touching the case as you move about. So it's either in an ESD bag or in my hand as I'm putting in/taking it out of the case and I'm always in contact with the case.

A wrist strap makes that easy to do, so if you do this a lot and can't remember to keep yourself in contact just wear one.

That said, I do believe that PC sub-assemblies are designed with full knowledge that amateur techs with very little practical experience will be assembling them into systems and so have been designed with a lot more protection than in the early days. I just love the YouTube Box Opening reviews where the reviewer takes it out of the ESD package while shuffling around with it in his hands pointing out features...even rubbing it against his shirt. If they were super sensitive to ESD, there would be a lot more Part II's with sad endings.

Ah ha! Yeah, I watch them review dudes pull that ESD bag off and do that rub-a-dub thing, too. And, I am amused by their candor to do that, lol. As for me, I think I'll stay on the safe side than make friends with some service tech employed by a mobo company. Cheers.

 

[pensive69]

have you considered a grounded work surface?
Amazon has a few and most professiopnal /digital tech supply places have them.
inexpensive and portable.
...Anti Static ESD Grounding Bench Mat Kit, 500x700mm, Grey..."
(for example)