Static Electricity Madness...

[whizzard]

I live in the Northeast United States... where the air is dry and cold nowadays.  Just walking around my apartment I somehow create a bunch of static electricity.  No big deal, but when I touch my mouse or keyboard when I haven't somehow grounded myself in a while I give my poor PC a good shock.  I know it has an effect, causing my 2nd monitor to turn off and on, disconnecting the mouse for a moment, and whatever else random thing the little shock does.  My fear is shocking something so bad that it breaks.  I know you never want to work on a PCB without being grounded by using that little wrist thingy.. am I worried over nothing?  It surely can't be good.  Is anyone else in my sorta climate having this problem?  Do you think I might fry something?  Or just being wimpy?  Any ideas how to reduce the charge building up?

[Psybin]

It is crazy. My dog got up off her bed near me while I was at my computer, I heard it crackle and pop and when she walked passed me, barely brushing against me, it jumped to me and caused my keyboard to disconnect, then reconnect.

[katushkin]

A bowl of water in your room?

Less hard flooring, more carpet.

Erm. Earthing?

[Lu_e]

Less hard flooring, more carpet.

wat

[katushkin]

Short pile carpet I should have said. If you have hard floors and wear socks around the house, you are going to build up static. Short carpet, not so much.

[DrHubblePhD]

The reason why the air is so dry and you are having problems with static is because your heating is warming up the air without adding additional moisture. This lowers the relative humidity and thereby makes your body more capacitive as samll charges aren't able to discharge immediately into the air. If you get a humidifier for your room it will clear everything up 

[tp4tissue]

Yea dude..

I used to have an audigy 2zs g4m3r..  and this one month was so incredibly dry.. that so much static was happening.. that I exerted enough static through my ears to blow the muting transistor on the card..  So I had to bridge the outputs..

Incidentally, It made the card sound a whole lot better without the transistors..

[Melvang]

I would get in contact with your land lord and see about getting you electrical system checked for proper earth ground.  Also, consider investing in a good UPS.  Not sure how much it could help with your situation but can't hurt.

[whizzard]

I didn't think of hooking up my humidifier.... thanks for the tips all!

[mr.squishy]

The cheapest solution: Wear slippers.