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The moment I realized grounding straps were not optional
I've been building PCs for maybe 8 years now and always figured I was careful enough to skip the wrist strap. Then last month I went to install a new NVMe drive in my personal rig and the thing just wouldn't post after. No beeps, no display, nothing. I spent 3 hours swapping RAM and reseating everything before I thought to check the drive itself. Turns out the controller chip was dead, and the only explanation is I zapped it while handling it on the carpet in my office. I've got tile floors, so I never thought static was a risk, but I guess the chair and my socks built up enough charge. Now I keep a grounding mat clipped to my desk at all times, even for simple RAM swaps. Has anyone else fried a part this way and only caught it after the fact?
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aaronsullivan1d ago
The carpet and socks thing is real. I killed a stick of DDR4 that way years ago and didn't figure it out until I tried it in a different board and got nothing. What fixed it for me was getting a cheap ESD mat and clipping the wrist strap to it, then touching the bare metal of the case before I grab anything. Sounds like overkill but I have not lost a part since, and it takes two seconds.
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