On Saturday 25 Sep 2004 4:55 pm, Erylon Hines wrote: > On Saturday 25 September 2004 07:33 am, Lyvim Xaphir wrote: > | But for all the *newbies* here reading this, statically wounded > | circuits can show weird symptoms months after installation. > | Sometimes weird stuff like what Ron is seeing. That includes > | (especially) motherboards. It's best to have a grounded static > | wrist band on when you are inside your computer and before you > | remove the static packaging from any new component. (static > | packaging isn't there because it's pretty.) If you always do this, > | you can be sure that you've kept your equipment in mint condition. > | > | LX > > A note on grounding. Most times when I see instructions for this it > says something like, "Unplug your computer". > > DO NOT UNPLUG YOUR COMPUTER. If you do, you will remove the machine > from the system ground and your box will be "floating". Any time > equipment is floating, there is a chance that it's potential will be > different from ground potential. Turn it off, but leave it plugged > in and the case will be bonded. If you are not on a workbench with a > known good bond to ground, attach yourself to the metal part of the > case, and you are good to go.
I think "Which" was told off and had to publish a retraction not so long ago for publicly giving that bit of advice. Some things to bear in mind: 1. If there's an earth fault the live wire is connected to you. 2. The switch is in the live wire. If, like I did, you have an extension cable with the live and neutral swapped, then the live parts are still live. It may still be a problem with a properly wired connection if your neutral is at a different potential to your earth. OK, not such a problem with a PC because the PSU is enclosed. 3. Anti-static straps have 1MegOhm resistors in them. Without such they are considered serious health and safety violations. Since every piece of anti-static equipment has that, the actual resistance to earth of professional gear is usually several meg ohms. Personally, If I have my wrist strap with me I leave the box plugged in and use it. If I don't then I still leave it plugged in, but just touch the case frequently to keep myself at the same potential. I think very long and hard before I decide to connect myself to the case with a piece of wire. Another word of warning: some PSUs do not have an off switch. The button on the front of an ATX case leaves power to some parts of the motherboard. If there isn't a rocker switch on the PSU, you can not leave it plugged in without having an external switch somewhere. -- Richard Urwin
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