Snake oil. I've never damaged a component with static electricity, and neither have any of you.

>>105940892 (OP)
How do I damage something on purpose in a non visible way so I can use my extended warranty for store credit

>>105940892 (OP)
I did, I destroyed a lot of FETs.

>>105940892 (OP)
thats true.

You’re supposed to clip it to you foreskin.

>>105940892 (OP)
Wearing one out to the club turned you into a pussy destroyer in th be 90's.

>>105941043
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as foreskin, is in fact, foreskin/Pinux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, Foreskin plus Pinux.

>>105940892 (OP)
Google didn't believe in ESD measures until they had to pull dead parts and Quanta/Foxconn kept rejecting RMA claims for ESD damage. Saved millions with ESD measures.
ESD doesn't kill immediately, just shortens lifespan, sometimes significantly.

>>105940892 (OP)
The sales pitch it
>you can buy this strap thing
>or you can touch your PC case every once in a while
...like yeah, when I work on my PC I will touch my case. If you don't rub a balloon you're fine

>>105941135
>he doesn't rub balloons for good luck before tinkering

>>105941155
Aparently this ain't a thing people do normally.

Source: ChatGPT 4o mini 2025-07-17.

not me personally but i witnessed a coworker burn a ram module due static electricity. he was just adding it normally to his laptop and it wouldn't post, removing the new ram allowed the laptop to boot, so we realized he probably killed with static

>>105941199
we're that far into July? sheeeeit

>>105941135
>don't rub a balloon
What about rubbing a negro's wooly head?

>>105940922
touch one of the gold plates on the motherboard with static electricity. the modern motherboard is coated to prevent this from happening so easily

>>105940892 (OP)
It may be a somewhat placebo, but who cares? I have like 10 of these straps that I've gotten for free over the years. Just use it for peace of mind.

>>105940892 (OP)
I live in Texas, where it's warm and humid enough that it isn't much of a problem. And I have enough sense to hold things by the edges when walking around.
But I have zapped many things thanks to accidental hot-plugging with 24VDC power in a connector. 3.3V logic does not like the sideways path voltages that can cause.

>>105940892 (OP)
I stopped believing in the static discharge meme for good when one day I was handling a motherboard in a very dry room with a carpeted floor, and there was a discharge while I was holding the motherboard in my hands. It was strong enough to make me feel the electric shock, drop the motherboard on the desk, and blueish sparks were flown from the motherboard.

I was sure the motherboard was fried (as well as the CPU and ram that were plugged in it), but everything worked and there was no harm done at all. It worked for years without issues.

I just touch the radiator first.

>>105940892 (OP)
I do my pc upgrades on my carpet floor whilst wearing socks. Never had an issue

>>105940892 (OP)
i never felled out of a roof, thus i dont need any ppe when going there to fix it, no mmater how shitty is it

just plug your PSU in to the wall and touch its casing before you install the CPU or memory.

EZ.

>>105942767
I saw the same once adding an SSD to my then brand new X1 Extreme. Saw a spark going from the tip of the screwdriver to the screw terminal, thought "oh shit oh shit oh shit I just killed my fucken expensive laptop" but it was fine.

>>105940892 (OP)
You should use it with anything that has 3 or more leads. Specifically, the wires going from the leads to outer circuitry to the silicon chip in the packaging are tiny and act like little fuses. You cannot feel the amount of static discharge it takes to fry one of the wires.
Other than this, though, it really doesn'5lt matter. If you're just messing with caps, resistors and even diodes like LEDs are fine being manhandled.
And for fucks sake please use flux. You can even mix tree sap and alcohol if you really have to.

aren't these for factory workers

>>105940892 (OP)
I swear my friend has damaged several RAM sticks, I blame static discharge. I don't use a wrist strap but instead I touch something grounded before touching circuit boards and stuff.

>>105940922
You have to sprinkle it with asbestos.

>>105941204
Possibly. Some boards are also quite picky about RAM.

>>105942767
Depends where the discharge happened I suppose. Computer parts are surprisingly tough

>>105945516
>And for fucks sake please use flux. You can even mix tree sap and alcohol if you really have to.
For real?

I was tightening a monitor clamp and the plastic fin on the end of the bolt lightly touched my PC case. In that second one of my hard drive drives shorted.

The freezing winters here are so dry that there is constant arcing whenever i touch something conductive. Better safe than sorry. Not much of a concern right now though

>>105945771
it's sticky as fuck, but technically it will flow things better. I say it mostly as a joke, though

I walk into the lab without the ESD coat cuz Im too fat for them