and I'm here today to discuss electrostatic discharge.

In this video we're going to be going over three main topics:

what is electrostatic discharge,

what types of damage it can do to computer components,

and common prevention methods.

So, what is electrostatic discharge?

Electrostatic discharge, or ESD

is the sudden flow of static charge from one object with a higher charge

to an object with a lower charge.

Have you ever rubbed your socks on a carpet,

and then touched your friend to shock them?

Or have you ever been touching a doorknob or car door,

and received an electrical shock?

If you have, then you've experienced ESD.

The shock that you felt came from when the current on your body

was passed to the other object.

In this case, the car door, door knob, or your friend that you shocked.

This same type of discharge can occur when working an in open computer,

damaging vital components.

This is your computer.

This is your computer on ESD.

There are two basic types of damage that ESD can cause to electronic components:

immediate, and latent.

Immediate damage is obvious,

you can shock a component on the spot, causing it to quit functioning completely.

This type of damage is rare,

but at least you know the component has been destroyed and needs to be replaced.

Latent damage is a little more subtle,

With latent damage, you've only discharged enough electricity into the component to degrade it,

and not completely destroy it.

This type of damage can cause problems with the long term functionality of a component,

and decrease its lifespan.

So now I'm going to give you a brief overview of the contents of the ESD field kit.

So this is the anti-static mat,

and it folds out to form an ESD workspace that is portable and can be used anywhere.

You use this to ground yourself to the workspace,

to ground yourself and the machine you're working on.

This next piece is the alligator clip.

You're going to use this when you want to ground yourself to the bare metal of a chassis.

This piece here is the ESD wrist strap.

You're going to use this to ground yourself to the alligator clip,

or to ground yourself to the ESD mat.

The part of the wrist strap that actually grounds you is this metal piece right here

making contact with your skin,

so you're going to want to make sure that it's tight to your skin at all times.

And finally we have the cable.

This connects the wrist strap to the mat,

and to the alligator clip.

The kit you have may differ from the one that I just showed,

but the grounding methods for every kit will be the same.

If you have a larger mat in your kit

you can use it to ground a server,

or a desktop,

or anything that will fit on the mat

The mat and strap are your first line of defense against ESD,

but there are a few other considerations to take into account.

You can make yourself and the computer have zero potential of ESD

by touching bare metal on the inside of the chassis,

or touching the power supply case constantly while working inside the computer.

Most computer components will come inside of a static protective bag.

It's a good idea to leave the components in the bag

Until the moment you're ready to replace them in the system.

You'll generally want to be standing when working inside of a computer.

Sitting on the floor, or sitting in a chair can cause static to build up-

Increasing the chances of an electrostatic discharge.

You'll want to be standing firmly on a hard surface,

and the machine that you're operating on should be sitting on the table.

You'll want to make sure to disconnect all cables and cords from the back of your system:

Power, keyboard, mouse, monitor, peripherals...

Everything.

Clothing is insulated, so it can maintain a static field separate from your body.

You'll want to avoid wearing clothes that are prone to gather static.

You probably already have a good idea of what type of clothes these are,

but it's a bad idea to wear wool or some synthetics.

It's a good idea to wear short sleeves

to minimize the risk of your clothing touching computer components.

Did you know that lumberjacks can work on computers too?

In order to prevent ESD and reduce other complications,

you'll want to remove any jewelry or accessories before operating on a computer.

This concludes our video on electrostatic discharge.

Hopefully you've come away with a good idea of what ESD is,

what types of damage it does to electronics,

and how to prevent it.