Antistatic Precautions and Procedures

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Caution - Component damage. Circuit boards and hard drives contain electronic components that are extremely sensitive to static electricity. Ordinary amounts of static electricity from clothing or the work environment can destroy the components located on these devices. Do not touch the components without antistatic precautions, especially along the connector edges.

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Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can damage your processor, hard drives, expansion boards, and other components. ESD-sensitive devices, such as the motherboards, PCI cards, hard drives, and memory modules, require special handling. Always observe the following precautions before you install a system component:

• Do not remove a component from its protective packaging until you are ready to install it.

• Wear a wrist strap and attach it to the system chassis ground or to any metal part of the system before handling components or working in the interior compartment of the workstation.

• Use an antistatic mat. See How to Use an Antistatic Mat.

Wear an antistatic wrist strap and use an antistatic mat when handling components such as hard drive assemblies, circuit boards, or PCI cards. When servicing or removing server components, attach an antistatic strap to your wrist and then to a bare metal area on the chassis. Following this practice equalizes the electrical potentials between you and the server.