Low average current, the esd spark itself has quite a lot of current just over a very short time.
+1 to that, they do spam esd protections these days but those aren’t allways seving you.
If you are using a mouse on that setup maybe just get a small grounded esd mat as a mouse-pad, you’ll get gently discharged as long as you touch that so no more (or at least fewer) violent discharges.
You could also get an un-grounded power supply once those become available, that just makes you get shocked somewhere else eventually.
In theory the laptop case is anodised aluminium which undamaged is non conductive to electricity. Anodising grows an oxide layer on aluminium which is then either clear sealed or dyed (oxide layer is porous so the dye fills the pores). Only the electrical contact points (usually in a non visible area of the part) are the only unanodised area of the part. You cannot reanodise a part without stripping the oxide layer first as it’s non conductive.
Wow that’s a lot of advice, thanks everyone. I’ll try a few things (I’ve ordered a humidifier for one) and I’ll report back. This has been a most helpful thread.
I combined my multimeter and my FW16 from my inventory, rolled a natural 20 on the wisdom check and am happy to report: No surface of the FW16 is conductive. I did not scratch away anything before measuring.
I however can imagine higher voltages to jump through any isolating layer. E.g. cars are also coated in paint and are still very happy to shock you on nice dry summer days.
The charge doesn’t ‘jump through’ the layer, the layer becomes the insulation in a capacitor, with your body as one electrode, and the body of the laptop (or car) as the other electrode. So what you end up with is a current due to the change in value of the capacitor which, because of the constant voltage on the capacitor, causes a change in the charge the capacitor is holding (measured in joules).
Someone mentioned the laptop case isn’t anodised, but that doesn’t matter as aluminium in air will always get an oxide layer on it - you cannot stop it from happening, it is the nature of how atomically active aluminium is. This oxide layer will form the insulation layer between your body and the aluminium chassis.
I have the same issue. This only happened when I started using two monitors, I have been using a shitty 100w brick the whole time but this only happened after I added another monitor. I notice a constant electrical buzz from touching the metal parts. I guess my laptop is just spicy.
