Does anyone use wrist straps?

cheeblie

I have been meaning to ask this question for quite some time, but I guess I forgot about it. A+ and Server+ always stress the use of wrist straps to prevent ESD, however, talking with businesses in my area I found out they never use the things. Is this just some ploy CompTIA has to make you look stupid on your first day at work? "Excuse me sir, but where can I get a wrist strap?" I have never ever seen a wrist strap at any computer store. Could someone please tell me if wrist straps are actually used? Thanks.

Cheeblie

RussS

yup - sure are. I would never crack open a laptop without one unless I had an antistatic bench and standing mat. With desktops it is possible to not use one, but I do know a few places that demand staff use straps at all times.

lazyart

if you are in a shop working on someone else's stuff you'd better demand one.

Webmaster

At some companies I worked, you weren't allowed to open any machine without a wristwrap. Some managers would actually get rather pissed when you didn't while working on a 5 grand Compaq server...

... never 'broke' anything when I didn't use one though...

nethersdenizen

Many places don't, some do. I have some friends who work at intel inspecting CPU wafers, and they have to wear them when testing to prevent damage to the chips....still doesn't prevent some fool from dropping an entire wafer of P4 chips once in a while.

Working on desktops touching the metal case will ground you as long as it's plugged in, but then you should unplug it because of the 5 volt stand by voltage that many ATX systems have.

I don't use them or even own one, I just make sure I ground myself before working on things, my prefered method of preventing ESD while working on stuff at home is to take an old power supply plug it in then rest my foot on it while I work. But bare feet might be a little too casual for the office.

On you're own do what you want, when on company time do what they recommend.

RussS

nethersdenizen - I suggest that you learn a little more about ESD my friend.

Working on computers we do NOT EARTH ourselves to prevent damage to components. What we do is connect to the unit to BALANCE our static charge with that of the unit we are working on. To put it simply, when you remove a RAM chip from a machine you have shorted yourself to there is minimal chance of damaging the unit - however when you slide that shiny new RAM chip out of its antistatic (joke) plastic bag there is certainly a great opportunity to ruin it before installing it.... which is why we should ALWAYS handle RAM chips by their edges.

Those 'antistatic' bags are not effective either as being made out of plastic when the component slides out of the bag it actually generates a charge. There are some plastic compounds that do minimise this, however due to their greater costs most manutacturers don't use them. My understanding is that the major reason for the bag is plainly to seperate it from other components.

Major build rooms do have antistatic benches and floors that are connected to gether to balance the charge and are then earthed. The thing to understand is that this does NOT remove all of the charge as the earth itself has electrical and magntic fields, but works at creating the lowest common denominator. Plus when working on an antistatic floor you do not build a charge up in yourself ... providing you are wearing the correct footwear.

Webmaster

Perhaps I shouldn't say this, because I totally agree with RussS' advice, but I talked to a service guy from Compaq who repaired servers when a server broke down, and he told me he never used a wristwrap or anything, when he replaced SIMS or DIMMS... only ones a couple of years (after handling about a thousand) a chip failed... and a static charge didn't even had to be the reason...

Nevertheless, I'm always careful when it comes to RAM and other chips... especially when I bought it myself

tokhss

i never do.. i should. but i dont.. never damaged any hardware before, hopefully that will never happen..

i usually just the back screws of the computer or anything metal while i work on the computer .. every other min or so i will repeat that.

cheeblie

Well, I assume that I'll just continue not using one until I either break something or am forced to by an employer. Thanks for all the comments.

Cheeblie

nethersdenizen

Did some testing today and found out ESD is just a myth.

Test one:
I dragged my feet on the carpet and zapped the heck out of a 386 20Mhz chip and it still works.

Test two:
I took some old 32 pin simms and stuck them in my bed and pulled a wool blanket over them repeatly and it was quite a light show in the dark and they still work.

These parts are still working fine....

To prop up my table....even after all that ESD.

But I guess what you are saying is that touching the metal case before working on the parts inside does not protect against ESD? Because connecting myself to the house ground is the same thing, everything shares a common ground.

Drakonblayde

Uhm, considering I've seen a static discharge into an Athlon 2600 XP fry it, I'm pretty sure ESD does exist

I don't always use a strap on my own hardware (mine are all in my tech kit, which is 95% of the time in my car and I'm too lazy to go fetch it), but I understand the risks associated with it, and if I fry it, hey, my fault, my problem. Whenever I'm touching anyone elses hardware, otoh, yeah, I'm using a strap. I refuse to give anyone ammunition to use against me if a part is fried.

pandimus

ive never fried anything via ESD. Once when I was about 13, I had an old xt, that I had powered on and I was putting a screw in a card, I accidentally dropped the card into the motherboard. Unfortunatly from that day on, i could not use the keyboard

RussS

nethersdenizen -

I have seen many screwed CPUs and RAM chips over the years. Unfortunately many more AMD, but I think that is because the techs do not undertsand that they have different architecture than Intel chips. With your little experiment you have not had an immediate response, however what can happen is that the chip is partially stuffed and can fail at any time - can also cause problems with other parts of the system. You will also find that old 286/386/486 chips are much less sensitive to ESD than more modern ones.

Grounding - yes touching the case will BALANCE the charge level. If the case is earthed then it will balance the charge with the earth, however having the machine connected to a wall socket is defininately NOT recommended. I have worked on a few houses where a nail has been put through wiring while putting up a picture hook - no big bang, however the earth wire actually had phase power on it and one of the end effects was that light bulbs only lasted a few weeks or months.
ALSO a very good reason for a decent UPS for your system if you have a handyperson around the house with a preclusion to nailing things lseft right and center

molly

I removed the 128 mb of ram from my PC then installed 256mb but my computer wouldn't boot up so I replaced the original 128mb but it still wouldn't work. It's the first time I had ever been inside my PC and I thought I had been careful.
What I couldn't figure out was when I installed the new 256mb, the fan went round even though I couldn't get anything on screen but with the original 128mb that I re-installed the fan woulsdn't work at all or anything at all onscreen. The power supply was tested as ok so what did I do wrong.. could I have fried the board? Wish I knew.
By the way I like reading the postings here. I went into another site where they had a chatroom but someone in there had a real nasty attitude so I think I will stick to this one with all you good guys

nethersdenizen

This is a good place to be, people are nice here. I like to say off the wall things and see what happens and a lot of good information gets out for people to read. I don't work on the insides of peoples computers as a living, it's just a hobby.

RussS

HiYa molly

Welcome, and glad you enjoy our friendly attitude here

tokhss

this forum isnt clustered yet with stupid people.. every forum eventually has one person who nobody likes and is most annoying..

so far.. so good with this forum.. thats why i am here. People here seem serious and well educated.. support for other trainees is awsome.. you can always find help and people seem to care. webmaster puts alot of time here and has great technotes.

anyhow.. back to the subject.. gettin off track...

Zumpel

Wrist straps.... ermm... I dry my hands after washing them before I muck about in systems and make sure to have no drink around when it's open, but other than that I have to admit that the only time I observed proper procedure was when training newbs. (to cover my own behind, of course)
I agree with the guys before me As soon as the hardware you fiddle around with isn't yours you'd better wear one. CompTIA is right to point this out as they do. Best to cover yourself on all angles when you're working on some highend machine. (The usual "It worked until you started on it bit...")

molly

Thanks for the welcome.
My exam has been cancelled due to the prometric server not being ready... I don't know if to feel disappointed or relieved lol.
I think I will take one exam at a time. Hope I can't be forced into taking both the A+ exams although I think someone here told me I could take it seperately.
See you later

Lexxdymondz

I always use a wrist strap and an esd mat with my computer or anyone elses. I can't afford to replace fried components (especially if I fried them due to laziness or stupidity)...again mine or anyone elses......

Better to be safe than sorry............