static

[philo]

a real nice winter day here
and after shuffling across the carpet and walking near
my computer...it's rebooted twice today...
presumably from static electricity.

the machine is well grounded...but i had left the USB compact
flash reader plugged into one of the front USB ports.

on a hunch i unplugged it ...
and now after building up a lot of static...the machine is not
rebooting.

apparently the thing was acting as an antenna!


is anyone else having static too...
or am only i the lucky one?

 

[Mike Walsh]

Having lived in the frozen north I can tell you that there are thousands of people who are having static problems. The only way to avoid it is to get a humidifier and take out the nylon carpet.

 

[philo]

Having lived in the frozen north I can tell you that there are thousands

of people who are having static problems. The only way to avoid it is to get
a humidifier and take out the nylon carpet.

West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Ah, Florida !!!!

Anyway ...I turned up the humidifier a bit and am trying to to shuffle
across
the carpet so much... So far I have not caused any re-boots!

 

[w_tom]

Reboots may only be a symptom of something more serious.
That static electric shock today can result in hardware
failures tomorrow or next month. Humidifier is where hardware
protection starts.

 

[Ralph Mowery]

a real nice winter day here
and after shuffling across the carpet and walking near
my computer...it's rebooted twice today...
presumably from static electricity.

Take a spray bottle and put some fabric softner in and spray the carpet.

 

[Mike Walsh]

A static discharge can cause erratic behavior, reboots, hangs, etc. , even when no physical damage is done to the equipment. A discharge can also damage solid state components, making them unreliable and/or shortening their life. In some cases a component will be instantly destroyed by a single static discharge, usually through a keyboard, mouse or some other point where the operator makes contact.
One of the advantages of working on electronic equipment in Florida is I don't have to deal with static problems every winter.

 

[philo]

A static discharge can cause erratic behavior, reboots, hangs, etc. , even

when no physical damage is done to the equipment. A discharge can also
damage solid state components, making them unreliable and/or shortening
their life. In some cases a component will be instantly destroyed by a
single static discharge, usually through a keyboard, mouse or some other
point where the operator makes contact.

One of the advantages of working on electronic equipment in Florida is I

don't have to deal with static problems every winter.


Yeah...but we don't have alligators up here in Wisconsin

BTW: turning the humidifier up just a little bit has solved the problem.