Absolute Beginner's Guide to A+ Certification

Electro-Static Discharge (ESD)

Anyone who works with electronics, especially disassembled components, needs to be very concerned about ESD. ESD is the static-electricity discharge that happens when two differently charged objects (such as your body and a computer component) come in contact with each other. ESD is an invisible killer of memory modules, interface cards, hard disks, and other computer components, because ESD buildup and discharge happens long before you actually notice it.

You might dread shaking hands with a new acquaintance in the winter because you'll get a shock, but ESD discharges far below the 3,000V level that you can actually feel can still destroy chips. As little as 30V of ESD is enough to destroy the current generation ...