On 5/11/2011 2:53 AM, VanguardLH wrote:
Timothy Daniels wrote:

... What the PC needs right now is a good blow-out with compressed air
and a good vacuuming, ...

Hopefully you are using a vacuum that has been certified for use with
computers (and not just some "computer" vacuum that's meant to cleanup
the keyboard). With typical vacuum cleaners, the air rushing into the
nozzle generates static electricity that will zap your electronics.

I hate to start this old hogwash all over again, but how many failures
have you seen *personally* over this?

I'm not downplaying ESD. I've worked QA on both the "Assurance" and
"Analysis" sides, even as far as slicing and dicing components and
looking at the guts with microscopes (even the electron variety). I've
seen the craters. But I've also seen the fights where a vendor tried
using the "ESD Crutch" to try to weasel-out on truly bad components as
well.

But then again, this was back in the 70's and early 80's. Back then,
both components and boards never got the design idea of ESD. Chips
weren't including those tiny little clamping diodes (and sometimes just
very-high ohmage bleed resistors) on I/O pins, and boards weren't
designed that way either.

It's well-known that there's a "pink bag and toestraps" mafia out there.

--
"**** this is it, all the pieces do fit.
We're like that crazy old man jumping
out of the alleyway with a baseball bat,
saying, "Remember me mother****er?"
Jim “Dandy” Mangrum