The ultimate OH SH*T! situation

[Scooter]

I was changing from one disc to the other on my PS2 tonight, when a static spark passed between me and the memory card inserted in the machine. I not only felt this bugger (it hurt!) I actually saw a bright blue spark of electricity pass between my finger and the memory card.

CRAP! I was sure I had just fried the memory card which was full of a LOT of recent game saves such as Drakkan, Hauntiing Ground, Psychonauts and more. I would not have been a happy camper if they had been blown up. Luck was with me, everything seems fine. Nothing on the PS2 or the controller seems to have been affected either. I'm entirely unsure how exactly this electrical exchange DIDN'T screw up the memory card but I'm thankful it didn't. Good thing I had copied most of these saves recently to another card stored away elsewhere for safekeeping. At least if the worst had happened I wouldn't have lost everything on the card.

I still don't understand why the electricity was attracted to a piece of plastic. Has anyone ever roached a memory card, console or cartridge game due to static electricity?

[thekorean12]

Plastic is perfectly capable of holding an electric charge due to static electricity. It sounds to me like all it did was connect with the outside of your card and, being plastic, it wouldn't conduct easily to the metal components of a memory card. Still, I highly doubt that a zap of static would do anything to harm your save games, even if it was directly onto the metal. A lot more electricity would be needed to fry it.

[MrPopo]

I still don't understand why the electricity was attracted to a piece of plastic. Has anyone ever roached a memory card, console or cartridge game due to static electricity?

Static builds up precisely because many surfaces don't conduct electricity. Rubbing causes a charge to build up and it cannot dissipate. Fortunately, this same property protects the delicate electronics inside.

[Erik_Twice]

Static electricity is such a bad term. Makes little sense.

[Limewater]

Static electricity is such a bad term. Makes little sense.

I don't see what's so bad about it. It is an accurate descriptor of what's going on.

I do have one static electricity-related story. Where I used to work, they had a cheapo Dell Inspiron 1525 in the lab. Every time I walked around the lab and then touched the mouse pad, there would be a spark and the machine would lock up. I ended up improvising a grounding strap and that solved the problem.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

When I had a Dell Dimension 4600 6 or 7 years ago I went to go and open the CD drive and some static arched and the computer then shut off. Scared the living shit out of me.

Another time I was plugging in a TV though but instead of static I got real electricity. Knocked me cold for about a minute or so. I remember the painful muscle cramps afterwards were horrible too.

[Erik_Twice]

I don't see what's so bad about it. It is an accurate descriptor of what's going on..

So, how can electricity be static? Ah, got you.
EDIT: Forgot to mention this artuicle that summarizes my thoughts: http://amasci.com/static/what_is_static.html

PD: And yes, the word "electricity" sucks too.

[Scooter]

Once when moving a small CRT TV I got a nasty shock and then the TV didn't work any more. It would turn on but didn't receive any broadcasts. Apparently a capacitor on the board above the tuner decided to let loose on me but it went through the tuner board to get to me, thus the burned out tuner board. Though it was slightly out of warranty, the manufacturer agreed to pay for parts but I had to pay for labor.

[Luke]

I still don't understand why the electricity was attracted to a piece of plastic. Has anyone ever roached a memory card, console or cartridge game due to static electricity?

I'm sure I told this story before, but one night my xbox "exploded".

I just purchased Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, and had been waiting a few days to play it (Silly me even paid full price). I was almost done with my last semester of the MBA program, and had just finished a proctored Harvard Business School exam, that took at least 2.5 hours to complete.

All I wanted to do after the exam was relax, open a cold beer, and play some Castlevania on the xbox. For around twenty minutes, I was having a blast. Then, sparks shot out of the back of my console, and a thin line of black smoke followed. My game room smelled like burnt action figures.

Luckily for me, Microsoft shipped me a prepaid box to ship it to them, and sent me a brand new xbox.