Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

Today my shirt is completely stuck to my body from static electricity and nothing I do seems to do any good, touching a power supply does not help in unsticking my shirt, I tried rubbing against the elevator door and that seems to work somewhat for about two seconds, I just google this and found that you can solve this problem by wearing a safety pin I tried it and this also doesn't help, My thinking is that you would have to wear a safety pin attached to a chain and have the chain dragging on the floor ..

I wouldn't worry about your shirt other than it being an excellent tell-tale sign that a static charge is present and there is the potential to damage systems or components that are handled inappropriately. Especially during the cold winter months when static becomes a problem, I recommend touching a grounded portion of a system's chassis before attempting to use the system, which insures that your body and the system are now at the same electrical potential. For example when I approach one of my ThinkPad laptops I normally touch one of the stainless steel screen hinges before placing my hand on the keyboard (or anywhere else). Many times there will be a visible spark, after which I am relieved to know that I just may have saved the system from potentially serious damage due to ESD. Scott.

Sorry to post to such an old thread, but I just read it and I'm intrigued. I think I understand the principle of being at the same electrical potential as the computer, but the term 'grounded' confuses me.

How can a laptop be grounded if it sits on rubber feet on a wooden table?

Apologies if this is a stupid question.. Thanks in advance.

M