Question Do all of the metal prongs on the IO shield need to be making contact with the ports on the motherboard?

[TurboSoggy]

What the title says. I built a new PC about half a year ago and just now noticed that the prongs on the IO shield aren’t making contact with most of the ports. Do I need to take the whole thing apart and bend the prongs to get them to touch or would that be a waste of time? I know they’re supposed to ground something or other and prevent interference, but I don’t actually know what that all entails. Will it decrease audio quality of USB headphones by introducing interference, or something? You can tell I’m not exactly an electrical engineer. If I do need to fix it, is it a mild enough issue that I can wait until I swap out some parts and have to be tinkering with it anyway? Thanks.

 

[hotaru.hino]

No. Just make sure they're only touching the metallic shell of the I/O ports if they're touching anything at all.

 

[Eximo]

Not particularly. Going to be mostly shielded if a few aren't making contact. The idea there is that the chassis is grounded, grounding each connector's outer shell makes it so there is less chance of interference. However, the boards and such themselves are FCC (or other local radio organization) rated. Most cables are insulated themselves, and there is a ground that it will eventually get back to even if that one right there isn't touching.

 

[TurboSoggy]

No. Just make sure they're only touching the metallic shell of the I/O ports if they're touching anything at all.

Yeah they’re definitely not touching anything they’re not supposed to, I made sure of that when I was installing it. They’re just NOT touching in a lot of places.

 

[TurboSoggy]

Not particularly. Going to be mostly shielded if a few aren't making contact. The idea there is that the chassis is grounded, grounding each connector's outer shell makes it so there is less chance of interference. However, the boards and such themselves are FCC (or other local radio organization) rated. Most cables are insulated themselves, and there is a ground that it will eventually get back to even if that one right there isn't touching.

So it’s mostly a redundancy/extra layer of protection? I can definitely say it’s not like I’ve been picking up any radio signals or anything.

 

[CountMike]

So it’s mostly a redundancy/extra layer of protection? I can definitely say it’s not like I’ve been picking up any radio signals or anything.

Those "shields"are largely decorative and may slow dust entering case somewhat but there are much bigger holes in the case and plastic to admit eventual EM interference. Just look at cases with glass or plexy sides.

 

[TurboSoggy]

Those "shields"are largely decorative and may slow dust entering case somewhat but there are much bigger holes in the case and plastic to admit eventual EM interference. Just look at cases with glass or plexy sides.

So I probably just have crappy USB headphones and it’s not some kind of electrical interference?

 

[CountMike]

So I probably just have crappy USB headphones and it’s not some kind of electrical interference?

USB headphones are even less susceptible to EM interference coming thru PC because it's digital signal going thru. CODEC chip and amplifier are in headphones, so if any EM is heard. it's in headphones.