Dealing with static electricity

Hardware
1

This was discussed briefly a couple of years ago.
I usually touch my desk’s leg to discharge, but my small vga display doesn’t like that. Keyboard sometimes hangs if I forget. I know these events can weaken components that can fail later.

Any suggestions other than:

  • humidifier
  • sprays work okay when my dress is clinging to my slip, but choke you to death if you fog a room.1

Thanks

1. Just kidding about the slip. No one wears slips anymore.

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2

I touch the radiator in my office to discharge on static days. I usually grab my metal bottle opener on my keychain and touch that to it to avoid the pain (dry in CO - so shocks hurt).

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4

You could, but that’s bad.
It’s like a small lightning strike.
Static electricity is weird too. It can sit in “pools” on your desk, and other strange things.
That’s why when I touch my desk leg, my external monitor freaks out.
Definitely not good. And I wouldn’t want to zap my iMac Pro.

6

How about an ESD mat? For the floor, or desk, or both?

Lots of sizes, color options, many can be trimmed to fit to configuration.

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8

Is there an electric outlet within easy reach? If wired correctly the cover screw of a 110 outlet is a ground. You could add a wrist strap or just tap it with a finger.

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9

This is my pet peeve. You’ve been warned.

This started when I was forced to watch silly, scary videos at work, created by companies that sell anti-static products. Thing is, not once in my 20-odd career in I.T. did I ever have to replace a part due to static discharge. I even worked with a dude who claimed he had problems with static all the time, constantly shocking himself everywhere. Never saw a single part failure.

If you are experiencing a problem with your monitor, you should inspect your cabling and power outlets.

My takeaway is this: If you work in an electronics manufacturing environment, or a clean room, yeah, sure. Ground everything to the nth degree. Otherwise, you are being OCD about an infintesimally small risk.

I discharge myself here and there for one purpose only - to minimize any painful shock I might personally experience at my fingertips. Any other reason is overkill.

IMHO and YMMV, of course.

10

Or if you don’t want to explain to a couple hundred people, and your boss, how you zapped all the phones at the call center. :grinning:

11

Well, I seem to have killed one of my drives.
It was in a metal external drive case sitting on the far end of the tray under my desk - the same tray I’ve been discharging my static to when I sit down. :worried:
Parts ordered yesterday for countermeasures, but a bit too late.