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Hi, I'm Brandon with Lenovo,
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and I'm here today to discuss electrostatic discharge.
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In this video we're going to be going over three main topics:
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what is electrostatic discharge,
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what types of damage it can do to computer components,
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and common prevention methods.
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So, what is electrostatic discharge?
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Electrostatic discharge, or ESD
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is the sudden flow of static charge from one object with a higher charge
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to an object with a lower charge.
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Have you ever rubbed your socks on a carpet,
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and then touched your friend to shock them?
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Or have you ever been touching a doorknob or car door,
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and received an electrical shock?
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If you have, then you've experienced ESD.
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The shock that you felt came from when the current on your body
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was passed to the other object.
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In this case, the car door, door knob, or your friend that you shocked.
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This same type of discharge can occur when working an in open computer,
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damaging vital components.
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This is your computer.
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This is your computer on ESD.
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There are two basic types of damage that ESD can cause to electronic components:
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immediate, and latent.
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Immediate damage is obvious,
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you can shock a component on the spot, causing it to quit functioning completely.
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This type of damage is rare,
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but at least you know the component has been destroyed and needs to be replaced.
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Latent damage is a little more subtle,
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With latent damage, you've only discharged enough electricity into the component to degrade it,
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and not completely destroy it.
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This type of damage can cause problems with the long term functionality of a component,
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and decrease its lifespan.
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So now I'm going to give you a brief overview of the contents of the ESD field kit.
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So this is the anti-static mat,
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and it folds out to form an ESD workspace that is portable and can be used anywhere.
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You use this to ground yourself to the workspace,
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to ground yourself and the machine you're working on.
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This next piece is the alligator clip.
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You're going to use this when you want to ground yourself to the bare metal of a chassis.
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This piece here is the ESD wrist strap.
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You're going to use this to ground yourself to the alligator clip,
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or to ground yourself to the ESD mat.
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The part of the wrist strap that actually grounds you is this metal piece right here
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making contact with your skin,
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so you're going to want to make sure that it's tight to your skin at all times.
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And finally we have the cable.
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This connects the wrist strap to the mat,
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and to the alligator clip.
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The kit you have may differ from the one that I just showed,
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but the grounding methods for every kit will be the same.
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If you have a larger mat in your kit
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you can use it to ground a server,
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or a desktop,
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or anything that will fit on the mat
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The mat and strap are your first line of defense against ESD,
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but there are a few other considerations to take into account.
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You can make yourself and the computer have zero potential of ESD
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by touching bare metal on the inside of the chassis,
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or touching the power supply case constantly while working inside the computer.
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Most computer components will come inside of a static protective bag.
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It's a good idea to leave the components in the bag
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Until the moment you're ready to replace them in the system.
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You'll generally want to be standing when working inside of a computer.
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Sitting on the floor, or sitting in a chair can cause static to build up-
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Increasing the chances of an electrostatic discharge.
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You'll want to be standing firmly on a hard surface,
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and the machine that you're operating on should be sitting on the table.
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You'll want to make sure to disconnect all cables and cords from the back of your system:
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Power, keyboard, mouse, monitor, peripherals...
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Everything.
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Clothing is insulated, so it can maintain a static field separate from your body.
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You'll want to avoid wearing clothes that are prone to gather static.
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You probably already have a good idea of what type of clothes these are,
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but it's a bad idea to wear wool or some synthetics.
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It's a good idea to wear short sleeves
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to minimize the risk of your clothing touching computer components.
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Did you know that lumberjacks can work on computers too?
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In order to prevent ESD and reduce other complications,
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you'll want to remove any jewelry or accessories before operating on a computer.
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This concludes our video on electrostatic discharge.
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Hopefully you've come away with a good idea of what ESD is,
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what types of damage it does to electronics,
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and how to prevent it.
