Hi ladies and gentlemen. I know this has been discussed for a long time but is it safe? I received a brand new motherboard and put it on its antistatic bag to check it visually. I felt no discharges from the bag or the motherboard, and I isolated myself beforehand by touching the metal doorknob and the wall couple of times. Both the bag and the motherboard were on a wooden table. Is there anything to worry about or am I being a bit paranoid here?
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Question Is it safe to put a motherboard on its antistatic bag ?
- Thread starter Emre78
- Start date
If you're going to be pedantic, electric charge (if any) will reside on the outside of an "anti-static" bag, not the inside. Resting a board on the outside of a bag is not safe in all circumstances.
I've worked for large companies where they've spent millions of dollars equipping labs and production facilities with ESD protection. When you're flying at 33,000ft/10,000m, you don't want the electronic avionics suite to lock up, because someone ignored ESD handling precautions in the factory. (Yes I know they have backup systems in planes).
https://resources.system-analysis.c...handling-procedures-for-sensitive-electronics
In the home, it's normally sufficient to touch the metal computer case if it's earthed, before pulling the motherboard or GPU out of its ESD bag. You're trying to minimize the potential difference between the two parts you're assembling.
The crucial thing is NOT to walk about on a carpet before touching any static sensitive components, especially CPUs and RAM. Two or three steps across a dry carpet can be enough to charge your skin up to several thousand volts. You pick up the component and Zap!
I use a large ESD rubber mat spread out on a work surface and an anti static wrist strap with coiled lead when working on PCs. The anti static mat is connected to mains earth through a special lead with a 1MegOhm resistor. I place everything on the mat before assembly and keep the wrist strap on at all times.
Most people get away with zero anti static protection at home and never have a problem. The trouble is, if you don't observe ESD precautions and a component eventually dies, you'll never know if you zapped it with static. See electron microscope picture of static damage (right hand image).
https://emfsurvey.com/esd-electrostatic-discharge-testing-sensitive-equipment-electronics/
Good luck. It may never happen to you.
I've worked for large companies where they've spent millions of dollars equipping labs and production facilities with ESD protection. When you're flying at 33,000ft/10,000m, you don't want the electronic avionics suite to lock up, because someone ignored ESD handling precautions in the factory. (Yes I know they have backup systems in planes).
https://resources.system-analysis.c...handling-procedures-for-sensitive-electronics
In the home, it's normally sufficient to touch the metal computer case if it's earthed, before pulling the motherboard or GPU out of its ESD bag. You're trying to minimize the potential difference between the two parts you're assembling.
The crucial thing is NOT to walk about on a carpet before touching any static sensitive components, especially CPUs and RAM. Two or three steps across a dry carpet can be enough to charge your skin up to several thousand volts. You pick up the component and Zap!
I use a large ESD rubber mat spread out on a work surface and an anti static wrist strap with coiled lead when working on PCs. The anti static mat is connected to mains earth through a special lead with a 1MegOhm resistor. I place everything on the mat before assembly and keep the wrist strap on at all times.
Most people get away with zero anti static protection at home and never have a problem. The trouble is, if you don't observe ESD precautions and a component eventually dies, you'll never know if you zapped it with static. See electron microscope picture of static damage (right hand image).
https://emfsurvey.com/esd-electrostatic-discharge-testing-sensitive-equipment-electronics/
Good luck. It may never happen to you.
Sorry for the late reply and thank you for these detailed points. As I noted earlier, I felt no discharge from the bag or the motherboard, and I got the static on me discharged by touching the metal stuff in my house. Even then I did not feel anything. I solely put the brand new board on its brand new bag to check it and nothing else. I also do not think that the bag had the time to collect any static load since it was a brand new one. I did not even power it. I guess I can expect nothing negative from this scenarioIf you're going to be pedantic, electric charge (if any) will reside on the outside of an "anti-static" bag, not the inside. Resting a board on the outside of a bag is not safe in all circumstances.
I've worked for large companies where they've spent millions of dollars equipping labs and production facilities with ESD protection. When you're flying at 33,000ft/10,000m, you don't want the electronic avionics suite to lock up, because someone ignored ESD handling precautions in the factory. (Yes I know they have backup systems in planes).
https://resources.system-analysis.c...handling-procedures-for-sensitive-electronics
In the home, it's normally sufficient to touch the metal computer case if it's earthed, before pulling the motherboard or GPU out of its ESD bag. You're trying to minimize the potential difference between the two parts you're assembling.
The crucial thing is NOT to walk about on a carpet before touching any static sensitive components, especially CPUs and RAM. Two or three steps across a dry carpet can be enough to charge your skin up to several thousand volts. You pick up the component and Zap!
I use a large ESD rubber mat spread out on a work surface and an anti static wrist strap with coiled lead when working on PCs. The anti static mat is connected to mains earth through a special lead with a 1MegOhm resistor. I place everything on the mat before assembly and keep the wrist strap on at all times.
Most people get away with zero anti static protection at home and never have a problem. The trouble is, if you don't observe ESD precautions and a component eventually dies, you'll never know if you zapped it with static. See electron microscope picture of static damage (right hand image).
https://emfsurvey.com/esd-electrostatic-discharge-testing-sensitive-equipment-electronics/
Good luck. It may never happen to you.
I found this statement quite interesting, especially the part about static discharges below 3,000 volts usually going unnoticed, whilst being more than enough to damage some components.
In ordinary movement, a person creates static electricity. In these circumstances, hand contact with a conductive material will discharge static from the body very rapidly. This is ESD = Electrostatic discharge. Static electricity has become a major problem in the electronics industry. Usually, this passes unnoticed because our bodies do not feel discharges below 3000 volts. We may see ESD above 5000 volts as a spark. The most sensitive components may be damaged by a charge of just 30 volts, and many standard components are sensitive to charges of 100...200 volts.
https://www.treston.us/blog/how-measure-esd-control
In ordinary movement, a person creates static electricity. In these circumstances, hand contact with a conductive material will discharge static from the body very rapidly. This is ESD = Electrostatic discharge. Static electricity has become a major problem in the electronics industry. Usually, this passes unnoticed because our bodies do not feel discharges below 3000 volts. We may see ESD above 5000 volts as a spark. The most sensitive components may be damaged by a charge of just 30 volts, and many standard components are sensitive to charges of 100...200 volts.
https://www.treston.us/blog/how-measure-esd-control
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