If it were me, I'd stay grounded while taking it out of the box, then place it on an anti static mat and keep it in contact with that while removing the bubble wrap.

I once received a graphics card packed this way and it did not work when tested. The seller did not dispute it, so I'll never know for sure if it worked prior to being shipped that way.

No need to worry, I bought dozens of videocards, motherboards and other PC components packed in bubble wrap. All of them were fine. It is quite difficult to kill components by static.

Hmm.. static discharge is a current flow between two different potentials. Isolation is king - or high resistance to limit the current of the electrostatic discharge. I had a chair from which I always got incredibly large amounts of static charges and shocks.. I used a 1MOhm resistor I had laying around to discharge myself - I was tired of getting zapped.

So I'd keep the card and wrap at the same potential as long as possible. Place the wrap with the card onto something grounded, ideally an ESD mat. Ground yourself, give it time to discharge (leave it be for an hour or so) and then carefully unwrap it, ideally with a non-rubbing motion.

I wouldn't be to pessimistic - while RAM modules are memory ICs which have all pins directly exposed on the memory modules contacts, the graphics card is a different story - no open connections apart from the AGP/PCI/PCIe slot, which means current can flow other ways (termination resistors, GPU etc.) I had GPUs packed in weirdest ways, none of them died due to that.

Immerse the package in sulfur hexafluoride gas?

It's heavier than air, and has a HUGE dialectric.

An aquarium, or plastic storage tote would work.

tehsiggi wrote on Today, 18:06:

Hmm.. static discharge is a current flow between two different potentials. Isolation is king - or high resistance to limit the current of the electrostatic discharge. I had a chair from which I always got incredibly large amounts of static charges and shocks.. I used a 1MOhm resistor I had laying around to discharge myself - I was tired of getting zapped.

So I'd keep the card and wrap at the same potential as long as possible. Place the wrap with the card onto something grounded, ideally an ESD mat. Ground yourself, give it time to discharge (leave it be for an hour or so) and then carefully unwrap it, ideally with a non-rubbing motion.

I wouldn't be to pessimistic - while RAM modules are memory ICs which have all pins directly exposed on the memory modules contacts, the graphics card is a different story - no open connections apart from the AGP/PCI/PCIe slot, which means current can flow other ways (termination resistors, GPU etc.) I had GPUs packed in weirdest ways, none of them died due to that.

The PC case is grounded. How about I put the bubble wrap inside my PC case? I can leave it there overnight, and then unwrap inside the case?

wierd_w wrote on Today, 18:09:

Immerse the package in sulfur hexafluoride gas?

I don't think I can get sulfur hexafluoride gas, and it appears to be increasingly banned.

couple pumps from water mist spray bottle before opening should be enough?

rasz_pl wrote on Today, 19:02:

couple pumps from water mist spray bottle before opening should be enough?

Interesting. How does that work?

havli wrote on Today, 18:05:

It is quite difficult to kill components by static.

True, except if you are dealing with single small-signal MOSFETs like the classic 2N7000 outside of a circuit. While I can't remember killing anything else, I have killed multiple 2N7000 transistors by taking no anti-static precautions when handling them. Possibly old CD4000 ICs out of circuit may be vulnerable, too. As soon as the component is in-circuit, the clamping diodes in the chips work well to conduct the discharde energy into the decoupling capacitors on the supply rails, so no lethal voltages will develop.

Well, thinking more about it, I think I killed a USB thumb drive. We had awful carpets at the office that caused people walking around with the wrong kind of shoes to become very charged, and a co-worker handed me a thumb drive, which I touched at the other end. I could feel a quite strong zap when taking the drive, and it did not work afterwards. This kind of issue is easily avoided by touching ground (like the case of a PC connected to a grounded outlet) before handling hardware.

I killed 30pin simm when putting together my first pc on a carpet back in the nineties, first and last time I underestimated static.

mkarcher wrote on Today, 19:13:

This kind of issue is easily avoided by touching ground (like the case of a PC connected to a grounded outlet) before handling hardware.

I always touch my PC case before and while handling PC parts.

If you are 0v, and the device is 0v, then there is no discharge and nothing to worry about.

If you are 0v, and the device is ?v, then the device will discharge to you - that can kill it.

If you are ?v, and the device is 0v, then you will discharge to the device - that can kill it.

If you are ?v, and the device is ?v, then... you're gambling but odds are a discharge will kill it.

Generally speaking, PC parts should always be 0v either by being grounded in a PC case, or by being 0v when placed into an antistatic container. So, generally speaking, touching ground to reset yourself to 0v makes contact safe. But, if the device is not 0v then you have a problem.

In my experience problems emerge when the PC part arrives charged to ?v, and putting bubble wrap through UK postal systems seems to charge it to ?v.

havli wrote on Today, 18:05:

No need to worry, I bought dozens of videocards, motherboards and other PC components packed in bubble wrap. All of them were fine. It is quite difficult to kill components by static.

Generally not possible for either side to prove there was or wasn't damage, so no reasonable alternative to assuming that something shipped in bubble wrap without protection has by default been damaged.