Proper ESD handling of computer parts
By LearnESD.com Team

Nowadays almost everyone owns a computer at home. Computers have become a part of our lives: to access to news around the globe and information of any kind at anytime we like.
Some people assemble computers to sell and some even open up and repair their own computers.

There are few things that we should be aware of to prevent the computer parts from being damaged by electrostatic discharge or rather known as ESD.

Major computer parts like motherboard, central processing unit (CPU) chip or microprocessor, random access memory (RAM) card, video card and hard disk drive are sensitive towards damage.

As a precaution, we have to wear a wrist strap when working with these computer parts. The wrist strap must be snug against our skin to ensure a good connection for draining the static charges from our body.

Connect an alligator clip to the banana plug of the other end of wrist strap ground cord. Connect the alligator clip to the computer chassis when working with the computer parts.
The computer is at the OFF state with the AC power cord of the computer remain attached to the power outlet or receptacle to provide ground path to drain the static charges.

Another way is to connect the banana plug of your wrist strap to a ground adapter plug, for example, GAP-005 ground adapter plug.

It is always advisable to set up a static protective workbench with a grounded mat on the work surface to place all the sensitive computer parts.

Besides taking the precaution, we also need to handle especially the hard disk drive part with care as they are easily damaged by vibration and shock.

When buying a new computer part like motherboard, hard disk drive, video card, RAM card or CPU microprocessor, we need to ensure the part is packaged inside the protective bag, for example, shielding bag with an extra protection from vibration and shock for the hard disk drive part.

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