Is electrostatic discharge a concern for video game consoles

[Ikaruga11]

Is electrostatic discharge a concern for video game consoles and CRTs? I have a carpet and am wondering if a rolling wire rack would cause any ESD.

[Josh128]

Very unlikely as they are encased in insulating thermoplastics. Even if you are charged up it would be difficult to harm anything unless you have a habit of touching the internals of your consoles and cartridges (which also must be connected or grounded, if they are not, discharging to them is even more difficult). Also, the humidity of your room has a lot to do with whether any electrostatic charge and discharge can occur at all.

ESD killing electronics is actually QUITE a rare occurence, and difficult to reproduce even under ideal or even extreme conditions. See ElectroBOOM.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SjOv_szzVM