I just ordered some ram for my iMac from Crucial.com. I read their installation instructions and they talked about grounding either with wrist straps or by touching the internal metal frame. They also said to leave the computer plugged in but turned off to keep it grounded. Is it ok to leave the computer plugged in when you add ram?

Leaving the machine plugged in does keep it grounded - at least, if it's plugged into a properly wired circuit. Which reminds me of a story. One of my buddies had a PC that took a surge during a thunderstorm. When I arrived to help, he complained "I just can't understand this, Dave! I HAVE a surge protector!" I went over to take a look. When I unplugged his "surge protector" from the wall, I discovered that someone had torn off the grounding prong to be able to plug the device into a non-grounded, two prong outlet. He wasn't very happy when I laughed and told him, "You don't have a surge protector, hoss - you have an extension cord!" Another one I see frequently is a surge protector plugged into one of those three-prong to two-prong adapters. Bottom line - if the circuit isn't properly grounded, you have ZERO surge protection.

Turn Off Unplug Touch metal case area before picking up RAM out of the static bag. Touch metal case area again before inserting Ram. Insert Ram Plug in Turn on Play... work... Why all the worry about static? The RAM is a 5 volt chip and a static charge is many more times than 5 volts, up into the hundreds or thousands and will kill the RAM if zapped. Where was this site that said to keep it plugged in? I would like to show it to some of the guys.

Crucials own website said to leave it plugged in...

Looked at the site and you are correct. Crucial does say leave it plugged in. Checked with Apple support and they too say to leave the AC cable plugged in. I still stand by what I said which is unplug. Some boards still carry 5 volts even when turned off and if you drop something inside your machine and make contact with the 5 volts and a good ground, you may have not had a static discharge but you do have a dead computer.

Unplugging is a really bad idea in most cases, because you lose all contact with ground if you do that. Some Macs, particularly the Quadras and early PPCs, have a +5V trickle that *does* need to be off when working inside them, in which case you should unplug and then connect yourself with a grounded wrist strap to a grounded metallic object. p