Question Crash (no error) when I step on a certain spot on my floor

[purple_banana]

My PC crashes when I step in a certain spot on my office floor. And to compound the issue, I share my office with 2x40kg German Shepherds who can't understand to avoid that spot, and they cause it to crash too. I'm really at my wits end!!!

PC:
Ryzen 9 5900X
32GB RAM
RTX 3080 GPU
Windows 11

Desk/Office set up:
Glass top/metal legged desk w/ triple monitors on a single stand
PC sits on a small wheeled 'under-desk' style chest of drawers
Upstairs room, carpet floor over wooden floorboards on top of wooden joists
Secret Labs Titan desk chair

So what happens?
If I (or a dog) stand in a particular spot on the floor, all three monitors flick off. After 3-5 seconds they come back on, but the PC has frozen. Often, but not always, one or two of the monitors (never all 3, not always the same one(s)) show a distorted image (below).

I have left it like this for hours before, but it never comes back. My only option is to hold down the power button until it restarts. This can happen on-demand by stepping on 'the spot'. It can also go weeks/months without happening at all. That makes it so infuriating!! It's not just a dodgy vibration either, it really is just THAT spot. And it is about 6ft away from my PC. I have tried jumping around right next to my PC and shaking the little cabinet it sits on and it's absolutely fine.

I have checked the Event Viewer, but it does not record anything for the crash, only a bunch of entries about recovering from an unexpected shutdown afterwards. And I have installed WhoCrashed but this does not detect anything either. I have updated my GPU drivers, I have completely removed my GPU drivers. I have tried underclocking my GPU, I have tried overclocking my GPU. I have tried turning off HAG, I have tried using 'balanced' and 'eco' power plans. I have physically removed and reinstalled the hardware. I have even tried running an extension cable and powering the PC from an entirely different room - but regardless, the crashes continue.

Please can anyone suggest anything to fix or troubleshoot this issue!?!?

Thanks in advance

 

[hedwar2011]

With you being on carpeted floors and it happening when only stepping on a particular spot, I would say you have some wicked static charge issue going on. It's interesting that it happens only on that one spot of the floor which would make me think that it might be grounded somehow or touching something metal.

 

[artk2219]

My PC crashes when I step in a certain spot on my office floor. And to compound the issue, I share my office with 2x40kg German Shepherds who can't understand to avoid that spot, and they cause it to crash too. I'm really at my wits end!!!

PC:
Ryzen 9 5900X
32GB RAM
RTX 3080 GPU
Windows 11

Desk/Office set up:
Glass top/metal legged desk w/ triple monitors on a single stand
PC sits on a small wheeled 'under-desk' style chest of drawers
Upstairs room, carpet floor over wooden floorboards on top of wooden joists
Secret Labs Titan desk chair

So what happens?
If I (or a dog) stand in a particular spot on the floor, all three monitors flick off. After 3-5 seconds they come back on, but the PC has frozen. Often, but not always, one or two of the monitors (never all 3, not always the same one(s)) show a distorted image (below).

I have left it like this for hours before, but it never comes back. My only option is to hold down the power button until it restarts. This can happen on-demand by stepping on 'the spot'. It can also go weeks/months without happening at all. That makes it so infuriating!! It's not just a dodgy vibration either, it really is just THAT spot. And it is about 6ft away from my PC. I have tried jumping around right next to my PC and shaking the little cabinet it sits on and it's absolutely fine.

I have checked the Event Viewer, but it does not record anything for the crash, only a bunch of entries about recovering from an unexpected shutdown afterwards. And I have installed WhoCrashed but this does not detect anything either. I have updated my GPU drivers, I have completely removed my GPU drivers. I have tried underclocking my GPU, I have tried overclocking my GPU. I have tried turning off HAG, I have tried using 'balanced' and 'eco' power plans. I have physically removed and reinstalled the hardware. I have even tried running an extension cable and powering the PC from an entirely different room - but regardless, the crashes continue.

Please can anyone suggest anything to fix or troubleshoot this issue!?!?

Thanks in advance

How is the wiring in your house? Do you think that maybe the cabling for the outlet is under that part and is getting pinched whenever there is weight applied on it?

 

[Misgar]

Had something similar at work. When they lifted the carpet tiles, they found particles of sharp grit were puncturing the flat mains cables laid on the concrete floor and causing momentary shorts.

Lift the carpet and get an electrician in to see if a mains cable is being crushed between the floorboards and a joist. If the carpenter/builder didn't make a very good job of chiselling out a slot in the joist for the cable, you could have trouble.

 

[purple_banana]

Thanks for the super-quick replies folks. I wondered the same about what might be lurking under the floorboards, but I thought powering it from another room would have ruled that out? It's also very sporadic, before this week it hadn't happened in about 6 weeks, it's happened about 7 times a day so far this week 😭

 

[Order 66]

Thanks for the super-quick replies folks. I wondered the same about what might be lurking under the floorboards, but I thought powering it from another room would have ruled that out? It's also very sporadic, before this week it hadn't happened in about 6 weeks, it's happened about 7 times a day so far this week 😭

That has got to be awful as far as the likelihood of corrupting data.

 

[purple_banana]

That has got to be awful as far as the likelihood of corrupting data.

More awful for the likelihood of it being launched out of the window!!

I didn't want to have to do this, but I have just rearranged my office and put the PC up on the desk rather than the small drawers cabinet. I don't recall having this issue when my office was set up like this a year or so ago.

I'll see how I get on for the next few hours/days/weeks/months. I haven't been able to trigger the crash just now, but that is by no means confirmation. It'll probably happen tomorrow when the dog sneezes and I have a few hours unsaved work primed for losing!

Thanks all

 

[Order 66]

More awful for the likelihood of it being launched out of the window!!

I didn't want to have to do this, but I have just rearranged my office and put the PC up on the desk rather than the small drawers cabinet. I don't recall having this issue when my office was set up like this a year or so ago.

I'll see how I get on for the next few hours/days/weeks/months. I haven't been able to trigger the crash just now, but that is by no means confirmation. It'll probably happen tomorrow when the dog sneezes and I have a few hours unsaved work primed for losing!

Thanks all

I had a similiar issue where something was shorting in my laptop and it kept turning off the fuse even when I wasn't using it, (usually at night) the laptop (and desk) were located by an outlet that was on the same fuse as my bedroom alarm clock and so I had many mornings of waking up late because of the fuse turning off in the middle of the night. I should mention that I was using the Laptop as a desktop, meaning it didn't move.

 

[emitfudd]

I had an issue years ago where my monitor would blink every single time I sat down in my office chair.

Another issue that still persists, if I leave my game controller plugged in to the USB port of my PC, the PC will come out of hibernate EVERY time I walk by or turn on a small desk fan plugged in to another outlet.

Posted about both of these and got crickets.

Agreed, it's probably something under the floor.