[genocidicbunny]

I think you and the parent comment agree. Just opening an electronic device is not necessarily damaging to it. The damage is done by improper handling.

The FCCs argument is based on the notion that as long as you handle the device correctly, the manufacturer shouldn't be able to deny warranty _just_ because you opened it. You need to actually damage the device to lose out on warranty service.

[lmilcin]

What I mean is that it is almost never possible to prove who caused ESD damage. It just fries some unfortunate internal part of some integrated circuit.

And I can understand companies not wanting to deal with this.

When I design electronics I often think of how to make it resistant from people touching it on the outside (ports, enclosure, etc.) but there is about nothing I can do to prevent it getting killed due to direct touching the PCB.

And newer designs are only getting more and more fragile. This mainly due to more and more of the circuit being integrated in chips (so when you touch it it is more likely to hit directly a chip), faster communication paths (so they have less capacitance which could be helpful in filtering the shock) and finer manufacturing process (the chips themselves are less and less resistant to ESD).

[rightbyte]

What consumer electronics actually have problems with finger ESD? Ram? My computers don't have any "warranty void" stickers.

Also, being worried about handling PCBs by direct touch is just silly.

[lmilcin]

Sooo.... what exactly is your professional experience in the area?

I own an electronics lab, design and produce my own circuit boards, I have worked for many years in embedded space including for Samsung. I am not professional electronics engineer by any means, I just know enough to handle electronics safely on daily basis.

Please, do not give people misleading, dangerous advice especially if you have absolutely no experience in electronics.

Whenever you are handling electronics you are supposed to follow certain procedure to ensure there is no electrostatic charge accumulated on you or objects you are handling and to dissipate any potential between you and the objects. And yes, that also means doing any repair on any electronics.

There is reason why RAM and other components are sold in ESD shielding bags. These are not cheap. Do you think they are doing this for fun? Or maybe there is a reason that makes it worth it to invest in an expensive bag? Do you think they would be doing this if the electronic boards placed in them were resistant to ESD?

Electrostatic discharge event may not necessarily mean immediate death to your device. It may manifest itself with instability, degraded performance, reduced life of components, strange behavior or other delayed effects.

It may be repair shop giving back the device that turns on but you discovering that it hangs from time to time.

And yes, that also includes PC components like memory chips.

Producers of PC components are fully aware that they are being handled by clueless people like most of us and so they put some protections in the components that are most likely to be handled manually.

These protection may be able to save the device up to certain voltage of the discharge and up to certain number of discharges. But it is really hard to tell because, as I mentioned, most effects of ESD are not necessarily easily detected or connected with the event.

You need to understand that you need many thousands of volts to get a spark, but most new chips can be fried by discharge as small as tens or hundreds of volts -- well below any capability of a human to detect.