There are "static grounding plugs" available that connect to the ground prong of 3-prong socket. They all (most?) have "built-in resistance for safety". Can anyone explain the resistance/safety aspect? Thanks.
very badly written response. You can't answer it with just a meager 2 sentences. Obviously, you have very little knowledge skills ability KSA about static electricity. You need to do significantly much more research / studies about static electricity. Go start from grade 1. Then progress to grade 2 etc. Learn to be more expressive. Learn to elaborate things further. Learn to be more articulate and expressive. Learn to write tens/hundreds/thousands/millions/billions of sentences. Meanwhile, go enjoy the Amazon Basin / Amazon.com / Amazon river / Amazon tribes / Amazon Rainforest / Amazon Jeff Bezos ....
My thinking... when I replace a CPU, I use a wrist strap clipped to the case... which through the power cord is connected to a power strip which is switched off. Hopefully any static charge dissipates through that path. I'm considering creating something similar with more "range" around my computer room. That is connecting some 12ga wire into the ground plug of a power strip with the switch in the "off" position...that seems the same as my "wrist strap ground connection", but I wouldn't have the "protection" of some resistor in the path. Seems I wouldn't need such protection of the power strip were turned off. Yes/no?
If you are working on a computer the resistor is unessesary. You only need a resistor if there is a chance of a high voltage discharge that could damage the circuit board and you. That being said, the power supply in a computer has capacitors that would make your eyes light up if not discharged properly. So long as you are not poking around in there you will be safe.
I do something like that. I run a banana plug wire to the ground of an outlet, then on the other end of the wire an alligator clamp to the computer housing. I touch the housing before I replace things, not moving my feet, or doing anything that may generate a charge.
Keep the room humidity close to 50% and you won't have static in the air. Skin won't dry out either. If you're careful, you don't really need to. I built several computers and never bothered using a grounding strap. I have never found any DOA hardware and only once did I have a very cheap SSD fail on me after months of use (it was OCZ so likely crap anyway). Modern electronics have ESD diodes built in to protect against static discharge.
I'm an expert on static electricity and computers, since I used to work on them during my career as a hardware tech when I was younger. It is too bad that Scat, who has me on block, will not see this advice, because he's a wussy-lala who must have gotten offended by a post he could not handle from a mature forum user like myself. It is so sad he will not see this advice about the simplest device he could possibly use to assure no static discharge while working on his PC hardware, which is a wrist-strap with grounding wire. Quick, easy, cheap. His loss.
The resistance will limit a potential current in case of accidental shorting to a high voltage. By limiting the current you limit the potential danger/damage when such shorting occurs. On the other hand, you can remove any static electricity from a subject through a (high) resistor. The resistor does not negatively influence the discharging of static electricity. Strap the wristband on, wait a second and you are good to go.
50% humidity... nice idea, but I live in Colorado. Would like solution other than "add humidifier to house". I've never had a big static problem until just recently. Apparently static can get into the computer through USB. I've had one computer (apparently) knocked out and 4, USB drives perhaps damaged/killed. When I now try to boot computer with USB drive mounted, I get "invalid drive partition" message. Interesting you mention... "Modern electronics have ESD diodes built in to protect against static discharge". Drives that were in the USB enclosures are apparently OK, but the USB enclosures themselves are apparently toast.