Pollyana

Anyone who has spent time in Queensland will have learnt that the people (the majority) are paranoid. They worry about changing plugs - arggh, electricity, must get a proper man in, they worry about crossing the road - the horrified look from my Bloke when I cross an empty road in the middle of the night - without waiting for green light, they think that if they don't throw all the food in the fridge at once it will rot instantly- dearest, its 5 degrees in here tonight, that excuse for ham will NOT ROT! don't use candles in the bathroom they could set the place on fire - I'm 2 feet from the thing, think I'll notice if theres a conflagration! I have to unplug the TV if I leave the house......yet he worries about the bills, so wants the computer on and running, and net-connected 24 hours a day (saves another connection fee!).

So I am tempted to treat this one the same way....but can I have the views of the IT guys? The dust collects in here like god knows what; when we had the CD drive in the pc replaced 3 months ago the hard drive was full of dust. The guy said clean it out in a few months time. So, I have no qualms about taking the case off, having unplugged, disconnected etc etc. But I am being told that I have to remove my shoes and socks and stand in the middle of the room, on the bare floor, in bare feet while I do it........ apparently, the guy who did the CD player took his socks & shoes off!
I have images of computer repair shops all over Qld staffed by people in bare feet.......


.....am I missing something? Is this a real danger or an old wives tale???

I'm off to find out if its safe to go to bed - any answers much appreciated, I'll check in the morning!
:scared:

NedKelly63

This is a very odd way of tackling static electricity!! Just ensure that you have earthed yourself before touching the insides

guest81707

I did hear that in some PC's there can be a latent electrical charge which needs to earth, but only if you take or a changing certain components, just for cleaning purposes just carry on.....good idea compressed air in a can............that'll blow the crap out.......another reason for leaving your PC on is the fans running all the time stops the dust settling and shorting the circuit boards out.

John

stephenwhite68

Just make sure you are earthed and you'll be fine.
ive built several of my own PC's and never had a problem
just be carefull about what you are doing and don't touch the mother board or any of its PC cards .....

You'll be fine !!

middle of the room with no socks and shoes on , my boss would love me to do that at work ....

CHnJ

LMAO at the original advice. You're highly unlikely to blow anything, as the stuff in 'em is designed to fitted by regular folk. If you're wearing nylon trousers and scuffing around a carpet in plastic baffies just leave the PC plugged into the wall when it's turned off and touch the metal casing every so often while you work - even while it's disassembled.

Your hard disk drives are sealed, so don't worry about cleaning them. The only problem is if the fans get clogged and things start to overheat while they're not pulling air through at full efficiency, so yeah, it's a good idea to clean 'em out once a year or so.

Don

QLD is the new 'squeal like a pig, boy!'

Paul&Ann-Marie

Reminds me of when i wanted to nurture " daphnia" for my fish ( it's a live food, very small, fish go absolutely batshit for it ). Whilst surfing the net i came across an article from america about a bloke that had gone into his local fish shop and asked a young man how he should do it.The lad told him to place a potato in a bucket of water and leave it.

3 weeks later the man went back into the shop and asked the owner, who, cackled wildly at the man for quite some time, saying over and over something to the effect of " you muppet ".



Not saying you have been told a fib polly, just that reading your post reminded me of the potato and bucket.

Paul.

Ceri

someone is winding you up Pollyanna . I've never heard, or seen such a thing here. The only reason people take their shoes off here in a house is it's common courtesy .. i.e. not to walk dirt in.. only in Britain do people leave their shoes on... which I find odd when I go back home to visit.

If you don't want electrocuted you wear rubber soles not barefoot

Sharpy67

This post made be smile

However :lecture: ........all you people out there that don't deal with computers or electronics.....beware. STATIC electricity can severely damage your gear if you start fiddling inside. Hence as previously mentioned, you need to 'earth' yourself before you put your sticky fingers on any boards or components........Oh, I know there will be those that scoff at this advice, However I work in the flight simulation business and deal with electronic boards and components everyday, so I'm well aware of the potential damage that static can do jsut by touching. At the most severe end, I have seen computers reboot due to static just by people walking past them, (where we were in the world, humidity etc.)

Thing is...........you can never be too sure if that intermittant problem that has now occured was down to static. Get yourself a cheap earth strap from any computer store that just plugs into the earth pin of the wall socket before you go inside your computer and it could save you a lot of hassle.

One thing I have noticed recently is that I seem to get quite a lot more zaps getting in and out of the car in the last few months. maybe cause its been so dry..............or maybe I just glow naturallly!!!!!!

Nick

Ceri

This is quite interesting reading Electo stress
http://www.hermes.net.au/livspace/info%20%20LF%20emf's.htm

I used to live close to a pylon in a previous house .. the pylon was in my neighbours garden ( Australia doesn't have laws for this unlike the US and UK - in the Uk there is a certain distance that a house must be built away from the pylon.. only the old homes are close) . Anyway in that house I used to suffer terribly from head aches.. I always put it down the pylon, when we moved from there.. no more headaches.
I also get headaches hours and hours before a storm.. I can actually tell if we are going to have a storm way before there any physical signs like heaviness etc , before the weather changes... I'm very sensitive to electric.. hate the stuff myself.


My hubby used to get shocks off the inside of the door ( on the exposed metal bit) in a previous car.

can't get that link working for some reason..

mlbonner

And yet plugs are okay?


My boyf builds his own pc's too. Never seen him take any special precautions or get a shock.

The post made me laugh though, and I know what you mean about changing a plug (I learnt how to do that when I was 8 at Brownies!! )

Pollyana

Yeah isn't it weird having live plug-sockets in the bathroom? There is one on the wall in our bathroom, at aout shoulder height - right next to the shower!! And just an ordinary light switch, which is coming loose from the wall/ I'm more owrried about electrocuting myself turning the light on, than I am about frying myself while dusting the pc! I keep telling The Bloke we ought to get the light switch fixed but he thinks its fine

cresta57

You got that right Don
Qld is 1 hour and 20 yrs behind NSW

Don

That was a great film, anyone remember the title (you know, 4 blokes going downriver on a raft...)?

Bix

Only put in a thread yesterday about "Duelling Banjos" Don.

It was Deliverance