jjiimmyyt 0 #1 September 26, 2007 After the question about RAM earlier I got to thinking. Have you ever fried anything due to ESD? How much of a risk do you really think it is? Whenever I work on other peoples stuff I generally use a bracelet when training says, but if I need to move it on occasion dont bother. On my own stuff never bother, I hotplug soundcards etc all the time and have had no ill effects. After 15 years or so I've never had any problems at all. thoughts... "This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wildcard451 0 #2 September 26, 2007 I have. Plugging an ethernet card in my freshman year. Toasted the card, and it started giving all kinds of weird errors on startup. Only time though, thank god. Sad that that can happen, yet when I damn near shoved a screwdriver through a motherboard trying to screw a heatsink in nothing happens... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 897 #3 September 26, 2007 2 things come to mind... it's been a LONG time since I've seen things sensitive enough to get zapped that way, and a long time since I have worn a static grounding strap although I do still own them. and I always ground myself by touching what I'm working on anyway... maybe the grounding habit has had the best effect. besides I have worked in Florida for about 16 years now...it's too humid here for static to exist. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eeneR 3 #4 September 26, 2007 I can tell you that in my case I am always either wearing a strap or leaning on a rack when I do server upgrades. With PC's I just lean on the case. I do not want to find out the hard way by zapping a customers $20,000+ Cisco blade while trying to install! But with the rack mounted equipment it is quite easy to stay grounded with little or no effort. Any good rack should be grounded, and as long as you have clean contact, you are good.She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway." eeneR TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jjiimmyyt 0 #5 September 26, 2007 Hadn't considered the humidty point of view, most stuff I touch nowadays is in server rooms with dehumidifiers etc. "This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jjiimmyyt 0 #6 September 26, 2007 Shame i dont work usually on that scale. Most of the people I do stuff for I have to explain to them why they cant shove their rack in the broom closet and why they need a seperate room with AC etc. When you tell them their business is fubar if their DB, files server etc melt they usually pony up. I wish I could step up to datacentre type but there is not much call for it over here. "This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eeneR 3 #7 September 26, 2007 One thing I have found a lot of customers doing is moving there equipment to a COLO and running it from there. Gives you much better network uptime, safety and redundancy for power and environmental stuff. Especially for internet driven and widely dispersed companies. Gives a central location for things and even if a primary site goes out everyone else still can get there. Quite impressive indeed! I actually work as a tech for AT&T, I work between two COLO sites. One is tiny at 14k sf and the other is over 100k sf. All different size customers from single racks to entire 100+ rake self secured cages with additional security guards manning them!She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway." eeneR TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jjiimmyyt 0 #8 September 26, 2007 I used to work for the largest IT company over here but had a disagreement when I broke my ankle during AFF. We had a colo site you'd probably laugh your ass off at, tiny place only 20/30 racks or so, though they have grown since then. We also looked after alot of the local government stuff and larger businesses. Now I'm doing SOHO and small business stuff for half the price to the client and twice the money to me. Now if I could sort those tax people I'd be happy and could start jumping again "This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 897 #9 September 26, 2007 If Cisco thought their cards would smoke, they would include disposable static straps like the other guys do...although I do make the same assuraces given the multi-daughter-carded-cards most of the blades have become....they are as you say quite pricey. The smaller router cards for the edge routers are another story.But the PC is amazingly tough! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eeneR 3 #10 September 26, 2007 Quote If Cisco thought their cards would smoke, they would include disposable static straps like the other guys do...[Wink] I have STACKS of those pieces of crap! The little baby WIC's are so cute The one time I swear to god I was almost sweating, Foundry had sent us an eeprom to install on a board, itty bitty little thing smaller then my pinky nail and I have tiny little hands. With warning all over it about ESD and such. So to be safe of course I clipped on with my roach saver to the rack. But this damn thing was so tiny I made my worker stand by with a piece of paper under it till it was staged on the board. If I dropped it I would sure as shit never find it again. I had to laugh, one of the electricians here had noticed me walking around with this "thing" on my wrist swinging it around...and saw the clip on the end. I had to pull his leg and tell him it was so I didn't drop a joint. For a split sec he believed me, then came to his senses of what it really was. Still priceless none the less. Especially cause I don't even smoke cigarettes She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway." eeneR TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
