Static Electricity - Significance in PC Building?

[Anonymous00001]

Hi, so I was wondering how much damage static electricity does. While I was working near a carpet and used the power supply to ground myself, I forgot to ground myself one time when I touched the carpet. I felt a static shock between me and an area somewhere near my fan hub, back of my motherboard (8-layer PCB), and the back of my case. How would I know if I damaged anything? Also, I haven't tried booting it up yet - I'm still building - but what are the chances I've damaged anything?

[Matias_Chambers]

Don't work on a carpet. 

[Cream pie filled car]

7 minutes ago, Anonymous00001 said:

Hi, so I was wondering how much damage static electricity does. While I was working near a carpet and used the power supply to ground myself, I forgot to ground myself one time when I touched the carpet. I felt a static shock between me and an area somewhere near my fan hub, back of my motherboard (8-layer PCB), and the back of my case. How would I know if I damaged anything? Also, I haven't tried booting it up yet - I'm still building - but what are the chances I've damaged anything?

There's only 1 way to find out. Finish building it and turn it on

[MorganO]

8 minutes ago, Anonymous00001 said:

Hi, so I was wondering how much damage static electricity does. While I was working near a carpet and used the power supply to ground myself, I forgot to ground myself one time when I touched the carpet. I felt a static shock between me and an area somewhere near my fan hub, back of my motherboard (8-layer PCB), and the back of my case. How would I know if I damaged anything? Also, I haven't tried booting it up yet - I'm still building - but what are the chances I've damaged anything?

i discharded between me and the cpu socket backplate and it still works

[steffeeh]

Always use at least basic ESD protection (wristband, and keeping the ESD bags), it's enough info that discharges cost companies billions of dollars every year despite them using good equipment.

Many discharges are those you can't even feel because of the low difference, in charges, but it's still enough to tear a hole on a microscopic level that can cause errors if it happens in the wrong place.

[Anonymous00001]

Thanks all, I'm hoping I didn't damage anything

[vorticalbox]

8 minutes ago, Anonymous00001 said:

Thanks all, I'm hoping I didn't damage anything

I've built a number of pcs all of which I used no static protection at all. I just did it on a desk.

 

if one is not rubbing your shoes on the carpet or rubbing a balloon all over ones self then there is hardly any risk.

 

if you're worried you can just touch a radiator in your house to ground yourself.

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Anonymous00001 said:

Thanks all, I'm hoping I didn't damage anything

If you have then just RMA it as dead on arrival.

[Anonymous00001]

Check this out. Need help here. But I'm posting this here because maybe it has to deal with the fact of static electricity? All LEDs work (I have some LED errors, check the thread). Error code 99.

[Ginger_]

I work with tablets all day at my work, and we've had some static issues in the past. And from my experience, I can tell you that you may not even notice anything not working at first, but it'll slowly get worse. The initial zap puts a hole in any components it is near, think about scale here. You can see a static shock, but you can't even see all of the tiny parts of your MOBO, that huge shock in comparision will do a lot of damage. Anyway, As you MOBO runs and pushes current to all the components, it'll just expand that hole and ruin components. So while it may work now, It could be a different story as you start to see things fail.

 

Also, It's not too hard to look for static damage with the right equipment (that all MOBO manufacturers have) and I can almost guarantee they'll check it if you RMA it.

 

Good luck though, hopefully you didn't damage anything, I wouldn't be optimistic though

[Anonymous00001]

Ok so...

 

LEDs on most things work (GPU, case fans, NZXT Hue+ module, motherboard, RAM, liquid cooler). Fans on case and GPU work. I'm getting an ASRock error code 99 which tells me something is wrong with the VGA card even though the GPU is firmly fit into the x16 slot and has a 6 and a 6+2 PCIe connectors. Remember, the GPU has fans and LEDs working (I know this means very little, but I still want to emphasize it).

 

When I connect a monitor (that works) it receives no signal.

 

Static electricity damage or am I just dumb? I'm very inexperienced in PC building. Check my other thread (the reply above the reply above, if that makes any sense).

 

Thank you!

[Ginger_]

9 minutes ago, Anonymous00001 said:

Ok so...

 

LEDs on most things work (GPU, case fans, NZXT Hue+ module, motherboard, RAM, liquid cooler). Fans on case and GPU work. I'm getting an ASRock error code 99 which tells me something is wrong with the VGA card even though the GPU is firmly fit into the x16 slot and has a 6 and a 6+2 PCIe connectors. Remember, the GPU has fans and LEDs working (I know this means very little, but I still want to emphasize it).

 

When I connect a monitor (that works) it receives no signal.

 

Static electricity damage or am I just dumb? I'm very inexperienced in PC building. Check my other thread (the reply above the reply above, if that makes any sense).

 

Thank you!

Considering you felt a static discharge, that would be my guess.

 

If you have an old extra I would try a different MOBO. CPU itself should be fine, so even if its a different CPU as well it'll at least tell you if it's your MOBO or something else

[Anonymous00001]

9 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

Considering you felt a static discharge, that would be my guess.

 

If you have an old extra I would try a different MOBO. CPU itself should be fine, so even if its a different CPU as well it'll at least tell you if it's your MOBO or something else

Don't have a different motherboard. Any other ideas for troubleshooting?

[Ginger_]

12 hours ago, Anonymous00001 said:

Don't have a different motherboard. Any other ideas for troubleshooting?

You could try taking out you GPU to eliminate that as the error, just plug your monitor into your MOBO IO

[Anonymous00001]

5 minutes ago, Ginger137 said:

You could try taking out you GPU to eliminate that as the error, just plug your monitor into your MOBO IO

Would this work even without onboard and integrated graphics?

[Anonymous00001]

I got the GPU to work in the first x16 slot, but only with HDMI.

[Ginger_]

33 minutes ago, Anonymous00001 said:

I got the GPU to work in the first x16 slot, but only with HDMI.

That's weird that only the hdmi works... 

 

Honestly I'm clueless at this point.

[Anonymous00001]

1 minute ago, Ginger137 said:

That's weird that only the hdmi works... 

 

Honestly I'm clueless at this point.

Damn. Everyone seems to be. I think it might be the static electricity? Even though I was dealing with the fan hub when that happened, and all fans are working perfectly. I even tried unplugging the Hue+.

[Ginger_]

Possible it backfed a current somewhere it shouldn't  of gone, at this point my best recommendation would be to find some extra parts you can substitute in one at a time to narrow down the problem.