Battery Plug Spark :S

Hi guys,

So I went to put a new hard drive in the empty slot of my alienware 17 and my annoying yet persistent brother made me pull the battery plug from the board before installing the hard drive which I thought wasn't necessary.

When I finished with the hard drive I went to put the battery plug back in and upon doing so I had two sparks occur as I tried to wiggle the plug into place..

The notebook turns on fine but I am somewhat worried that the sparks could have damaged something that doesn't show or may degrade over time... ??

Any advice or thoughts on the matter would certainly be appreciated =)

 

Probably static electricity built up? If it starts fine, then there's nothing to worry about. Be careful next time. You can fry components doing that.

 

Thanks for your feedback. The sparks occurred between the battery plug and the connector.

I will certainly be more careful.

Could any of the components been damaged in the sense that they will degrade over time before showing faults?

 

I use a plastic knife with a rounded tip. To push the Battery plug to the motherboard connector . To avoid sparks during assembly.

 

Wow replacing components with the battery plugged in?
Get your brother some beer cause he probably saved you thousands in component damage.

Those sparks are residual currents in the capacitors earthing themselves. If you left that battery plug in and did the swap whoooska the hard drive would do the earthing for you.
Be fortunate be very fortunate to have your computer still functioning and your health numero uno

 

Yes some components can get a shorter life expectancy from static shocks and not necessarily die straight away.
But you will never know what, if any, components felt this and if it was static spark or a "high"current spark from connecting the battery.

you talking about the BIOS battery? (Or is it plug for the supply battery, and not just a battery to remove? )

 

I second this. Always remove the battery and then hold the on button down for 30 secs to drain residual current.

You will be sorry if you don't.



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The guy was talking about small CMOS battery for BIOS not the big main battery.
I would not bother taking out the small CMOS battery the big one: Im taking it out everytime I do something in the lappy, anyway its hard(imposible in 17R4) to take the screws out(to open lappy) if the main battery is in hehe lol

 

Its what i think to.
Thats why I asked.
I never remove my CMOS battery to swap cards.
I wouldnt expect the main battery to have a plug (with a mission after battery already is removed) talking about alienware, but i havent seen all

But if there has been static it can degrade some components without always killing them.

 

Just be sure to drain the power as suggested above. I've never had issue after doing so.

 

The new Alienware 17 has a plug for the main battery!
It isn't good that it sparked when you plugged it back in but would be consistent with not plugging it in straight - in future unplug the battery and then press the power button for 30 seconds before doing any component work and reconnect the battery by lining it up straight and pushing it straight down.
In fairness for a hard drive swap you dont absolutely need to remove the battery and I have yet to damage a drive by not doing so but it is always good practice to do so. Certainly for ANY other component the battery should be removed.