Never ever do this.

[Melting_Point]

I was searching some of the threads here last night to see if anyone had solved the issue of RIVE motherboards not booting after being powered down. (I did end up finding that removing the CMOS battery for 30 mins seems to have solved the issue for now.) I noticed some very dangerous advice being given in one of the thread, and just thought I'd point it out and why it was dangerous.

The advice was to place the MB in the box it came in, and power it up. The boxes these MBs are supplied in are conductive, which is why they protect the board from ESD damage. I'm sure I don't need to explain why it's not a good idea to power up a MB while it's sitting on a conductive surface, any more than I need to explain why it's a bad idea to power a MB up while it's submerged in water.

Please, don't power your board up in the box it came in, and if you're guilty of advising others to do so in the past, stop giving out bad advice.

PS, the post I'm referring to came from a Super-Mod, I'd have thought they'd know better.

[Retired]

but i wonder, is paper really that conductive?

cant see how that can be a bad advice?

we do it all the time

surely there are better ways of powering up a board, but for improvising?

i think he knew very well what he was talking about

[Melting_Point]

It's not paper, it's cardboard with a conductive coating on it. And it's conductive enough to easily measure with a multimeter, which makes it much more conductive than water. Would you power up your MB if it was covered in water?

[Chino]

Melting Point wrote:
The advice was to place the MB in the box it came in, and power it up.

On top of the box. Not in the box.

[Retired]

my multimeter got a big green led display, and on the most sensitive setting it wasnt holding any voltage to speak of, hard to get a reading, nor did it conduct any voltage to speak of

my tongue however held a couple of thousand times more electricity ( i am not so good with massive digits, but in the neighborhood of 24.000 times more juice in my tongue than the top of the box)

Some one else may want to try

yes i am sure the supermod said on top of the box, if he said wrong, i seriously hope no one took that advice, because it can be hard to fit the gpu in there

Ps. It was a Asus Gryphon box i used, since it is a TUF box, it can be more resistant to electricity, i dunno

[Melting_Point]

WhitePaw wrote:
my multimeter got a big green led display, and on the most sensitive setting it wasnt holding any voltage to speak of, hard to get a reading, nor did it conduct any voltage to speak of

my tongue however held a couple of thousand times more electricity

Some one else may want to try

The box doesn't hold any voltage, it conducts current. Try using the Ohms measurement, on the highest scale. The measurement varied, but I was able to measure as low as 20k.

yes i am sure the supermod said on top of the box, if he said wrong, i seriously hope no one took that advice, because it can be hard to fit the gpu in there

His exact words were "use your mobo box as a test bench".

[Retired]

bringing my mulitmeter------->

[Chino]

I'll bring the sausages. Hit HVM up for the LN2.

[Retired]

I am not making so much fun of you, its just>

Overclockers have been using the box for this purpose for ages, and i have never heard that anyone have KO a mobo this way

Its good to be careful, but i still think that way of doin it is pretty safe, regardless of the 20k Ohm

a stainless steel sink is a bad idea tho, dont need a multimeter to tell

[Dr__Zchivago]

The point is: set the motherboard ON the box (the box should be closed); and, if 20k Ohms isn't enough to prevent arcing, then put a non-conductive bag (your motherboard came wrapped in one) between the board and the box.

I agree, "test bench" can be unclear. Put the board ON the box.

Are we going to argue semantics? Or are we going to push the hell out of some PCs?

Dr. Z

Edit: Grrrr... Paw's faster response...