Re: Can static electricity kill your mouse?

On Thu, 13 Feb 2025 10:32:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@gmail.com>
wrote:

On 2/12/2025 12:27 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 09:12:58 -0500, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com>
wrote:
 

I googled this and I am getting different opinions on this so I
thought I would ask here.
>
I got up from my computer to just take a break. I sat back down five
or so minutes later. I put my hand on my mouse and I got a static
shock. That itself, did not surprise me. The air in my house is very
dry. What did surprise me is that my mouse died when that happened.
The port it connects to is fine. I tested it. The mouse failed on
three different computers. Another mouse works fine on that same port.
>
So my question is, did a  simple static discharge kill my mouse or was
something else at play here? My mouse, is at the very least, five
years old.

 
I mean, theoretically it can. Your modern mouse has a chip in it, and
a surge of electricity --whether it's down the wire from a lightning
strike or via a concentrated static burst-- can burn out the delicate
traces within.
 
That said, I think it's unlikely. There's a lot of nonconductive
electricity between those chips and the surface and it would have to
be a pretty big static discharge to get through that and damage the
chip. I mean, maybe if you were touching one of the metal contacts on
a wired mouse, but even then I think the odds are against it. And a
lot of electronics are a lot more resistant to static electricity than
you might expect (not that I suggest you test it, but take it from
someone who has sparked more than a few boards while repairing them
and had them survive the experience).
 
Were I wagering sort, I'd put money more on capacitor failure, or a
flexing of the circuit board damaging some trace, or just some general
mechanically induced fault.
 
Either way, it's not something I'd worry about. If it WERE static
electricity, it's probably once-in-a-million event and not anything
I'd worry about happening soon again. Especially not regarding a
device you can replace for a few bucks.

>
Seconded.  More likely would be something failing internally - a
capacitor perhaps - and shocking you, though again through the plastic
is pretty unlikely (unless you happen to have a shiny metallic mouse.)
As it's dead you could always open it up for curiosity's sake and see if
there's anything loose or burned.

I'd watch that on YouTube! ;-)

'Cause there's a part of me that would love to see if that happened.
It would be such an unusual event --the static electricity killing a
mouse, not somebody taking apart random computer hardware-- that I'd
want to 'be there' (even vicariously) if it happened. Although even if
it did get "static'd" to death, I don't think the flow would be enough
to actually cause a scorch mark.

You didn't specify if it was wired or wireless. If its wired, there's
a more of possibility (though still improbably low) of static
electricity hurting the mouse than if its wireless, just because a
wireless mouse is pretty much all plastic on the outside, but a wired
mouse has an electrically conductive lead going straight to its
innards.

*

On an only vaguely-related note, today I learned that Razer --makers
of mice and other overpriced computer peripherals-- have a number of
brick-n-mortar stores to sell their gimcracks. What a world we live
in.