Laptop disassembly without ESD risk...

[shepard91]

Hi, everyone! I hope it's the proper category.
I have an HP Pavillon Sleekbook 15 laptop and I have to clean the cooling fan and replace the thermal paste (since I've never done it the last 2 years, in fact it idles at 50°C). The problem is: the laptop was designed by a group of crazy monkeys and to do such a simple thing I have to literally pull EVERYTHING out of it, including the motherboard, the hard drive, et cetera.

Can you please tell me what should I do to avoid ESD damage?

I did some resarch and found out I should wear an antistatic wrist strap to ground me with the laptop (though nobody knows about that here in Italy and I don't know where to find it...), avoid wearing synthetics, rubbing my socks on the carpet and letting the cat dance on my head while I do the job.

I'll do the it on a painted wooden table, barefoot on a ceramic floor. Can I just place the components on the table while I'm at it, or should I place those somewhere else? I read many people place the components in antistatic bags but, again, I don't know where to find those here because, well, if I asked someone "do you have and antistatic bag?" they'd probably laugh at me. Any idea on how I can find such a thing? Or is there an alternative to it? Is it even necessary?

Thanks in advance! (and sorry for the bad english)

 

[Motoxyogi]

You shouldn't need an antistatic wrist strap if you take a few precautions (most you've already covered), like wearing cotton clothes (no synthetic fabrics), not working in an area with carpet, touch off a grounded device (metal cooker top, microwave, radiator, anything that would be grounded).

You should be fine with just leaving components on the table, in fact the biggest risk of damage is probably the parts being knocked off the table. But if you just want to be safe you can go down to any computer store and ask them if they have any old antistatic bags (they're just the bags that computer components are shipped in).

My recommendation is to have a large, clean, clear surface prepared for yourself, have some little bowls for the screws (you'll probably find that there are two or three different screw sizes throughout the laptop), be methodical and document every step of the process so you can refer back to where everything goes.
And don't be afraid to get up and walk away for an hour if you find yourself getting frustrated. A cool calm mind is your best tool.

This worked for me when I was rebuilding my Vaio, and it still runs like a champ after replacing every component bar the screen and chassis.

Other than that, the only thing I can tell you is jump in and have fun 🙂

 

[shepard91]

Ok, at least I feel a bit more confident XD

 

[Iamsoda]

Hi, everyone! I hope it's the proper category.
I have an HP Pavillon Sleekbook 15 laptop and I have to clean the cooling fan and replace the thermal paste (since I've never done it the last 2 years, in fact it idles at 50°C). The problem is: the laptop was designed by a group of crazy monkeys and to do such a simple thing I have to literally pull EVERYTHING out of it, including the motherboard, the hard drive, et cetera.

Can you please tell me what should I do to avoid ESD damage?

I did some resarch and found out I should wear an antistatic wrist strap to ground me with the laptop (though nobody knows about that here in Italy and I don't know where to find it...), avoid wearing synthetics, rubbing my socks on the carpet and letting the cat dance on my head while I do the job.

I'll do the it on a painted wooden table, barefoot on a ceramic floor. Can I just place the components on the table while I'm at it, or should I place those somewhere else? I read many people place the components in antistatic bags but, again, I don't know where to find those here because, well, if I asked someone "do you have and antistatic bag?" they'd probably laugh at me. Any idea on how I can find such a thing? Or is there an alternative to it? Is it even necessary?

Thanks in advance! (and sorry for the bad english)

ESD damage used to be a huge concern, but now if you are reasonably careful you are fine. The only things that I would worry about are ram chips.