Not using ESD protection, never had any problems.

I just touch the PC case (with the Power connected) to ground myself. Never had an issue.

Same here, ESD has never been a problem.

I know most people dont use any protection, but this can cause a problem sooner or later.
Even when do not feel it, you can get it.

Touching the case when grounded is ok, but you need to stay in contact and unplug the power cord.

And why does everyone know that it is a problem to remove ram or cpu for instance while it is running but touching components with bare hands on contacts and all is ok, and these are only using low voltage supplies.

I leave the power cord in (but power off obviously) as this grounds the chassis.

I try to practice good anti-ESD procedures when I can. I try to regularly touch the metal chassis before handling components and store components in anti-ESD bags. I always put components down on hard surfaces, preferably on top of an anti-ESD bag - never on carpet or a towel like I see so many people do when photographing their equipment!

Since I live in a coastal area the humidity is usually moderate to high which helps reduce the risk of ESD.

But yes, people need to be more aware of the risks of ESD with hard to replace equipment. It rarely kills components outright, it usually manifests months down the track, as parts start to become flaky or unstable. I wouldn't go as far as to reccommend everyone wear a wrist strap but just some basic precautions can go a long way.

> and these are only using low voltage supplies

low voltage but high current

I always cringe when I see a video reviewer grab a $1000 video card and not care about were they are holding it. I always try to grab it at the edge or something were there are no electrical circuits!

I highly doubt such a high static charge can build up so it damages anything just from touching something with your hand.
Unless of course you are either very hairy, wearing static inducing clothing or in an environment where such thing is highly possible.

Lets face it, old stuff, for example CPUs simply cant die that way, i once overcharged the socket for an AMD K6 by 0.5V more (incorrectly) and it still worked flawlessly.

But thinking of it as i wrote this post it really depends on the environment more than just following a statistic about it.
It would be nice if a person had a clean room and equipment to handle such things, heck it would even be fun to do it, but >90% dont. So i guess this thread could be composed in a way to hint the reader on how to properly care of his/hers hardware.

I my self, as i wrote earlier, haven't had any case of notable static discharge, except when i got electrocuted from a hair dryer 🤣, and am in an environment with low possibility of static discharge.
What i do is i place components into anti static bags and handle them with such materials, when i remove my GPU for cleaning i place it onto such material (bag). Also i do the cleaning on a wood or rubber surface.

Ive also seen those things that you wrap around your wrist and ground it/your self, if you ask me, too much caring.

Not a big problem unless you are wearing synthetic fiber clothing such as nylon and on a carpet that doesn't have anti static properties. Back in the 1930s dust bowl there are some extreme examples of ESD. A single storm generated enough static electricity to short radios and cars and caused blue flames to erupt from barbed wire fences. It was so strong it even knocked full grown men off their feet if they accidentally touched or shook hands. People would drag chains in order to offset the static electricity. On Black Tuesday, enough static electricity was produced to power New York City.

I think this sums it up rather well: http://electrostatics.net/ESD_Guide/technical … sensitivity.htm

Especially:

Many modern components are protected by on-chip protection circuits, without which they would be extremely sensitive.

In old ICs (<1980) this protection is not implemented due to limited transistor count / chip size.
Still if you follow some basic rules for static discharge prevention it is usually no problem today.

DonutKing wrote:

I leave the power cord in (but power off obviously) as this grounds the chassis. […]
Show full quote

I leave the power cord in (but power off obviously) as this grounds the chassis.

I try to practice good anti-ESD procedures when I can. I try to regularly touch the metal chassis before handling components and store components in anti-ESD bags. I always put components down on hard surfaces, preferably on top of an anti-ESD bag - never on carpet or a towel like I see so many people do when photographing their equipment!

Since I live in a coastal area the humidity is usually moderate to high which helps reduce the risk of ESD.

But yes, people need to be more aware of the risks of ESD with hard to replace equipment. It rarely kills components outright, it usually manifests months down the track, as parts start to become flaky or unstable. I wouldn't go as far as to reccommend everyone wear a wrist strap but just some basic precautions can go a long way.

^ This pretty much sums what i do also.

Near my workbench, where i do repairs, consol mods etc, There is a naked copper pipe used in the heating system. I regularly touch it to remove charge while working. I also have no carpet and dont wear slippers. I dont think i ever had anything fail from ESD really, but its hard to tell.

I once killed a 486 motherboard when putting it together on shag carpet. 😀

Serial ports are quite sensitive to static. I've seen a few of them die.

That's all I've ever had problems with.

JaNoZ wrote:

I know most people dont use any protection, but this can cause a problem sooner or later. Even when do not feel it, you can get […]
Show full quote

I know most people dont use any protection, but this can cause a problem sooner or later.
Even when do not feel it, you can get it.

Touching the case when grounded is ok, but you need to stay in contact and unplug the power cord.

And why does everyone know that it is a problem to remove ram or cpu for instance while it is running but touching components with bare hands on contacts and all is ok, and these are only using low voltage supplies.

Touching contacts is BAD you finger oils will cause problems. This is why sand down the ram contacts with fresh printer paper when i have machines with no boot or interment boot.

EDIT: Yeah modern hardware has safety/protection that old school hardware didn't. Old school components are built like tanks though.

Kinda what the other said. I touch components only by the edges and always touch a large surface of metal before touching any computer component.
It's not always a grounded metal surface though, but sometimes that's unavoidable.

Sometimes I do wear a wriststrap, but not as often as I used to.

swaaye wrote:

I once killed a 486 motherboard when putting it together on shag carpet. 😀

Serial ports are quite sensitive to static. I've seen a few of them die.

That's all I've ever had problems with.

That's funny, as I suspect the serial port on my 486 seems to have died after I moved it. It was however all inside a closed case though.