elictric shock when touching the motherboard

[Aladdin Sadok]

hello everyone

i just bought an asus ranger z97 this is my first pc build i used my motherboard box as a bench test to test the MB and the other components .... i entered the keyborad usb to the motherboard and touched it by accident and it gave a harmless shock

is this normal or i have to worry about it ?

 

[smorizio]

most usb ports have ground shield becuase they will be zapped from people having static charges and plugging the usb ports and sound card audio plugs in. try not to zap the mb when it not in the case. esd can weaken a chip where it work fine today but then can fail at a latter date.

 

[i7Baby]

Depends where you touched it. And if it was earthed.

But you shouldn't be touching it if its powered up anyway. And if not powered up you should be using an anti-static wrist strap. You might have let go a static discharge and burnt out an IC.

 

[Aladdin Sadok]

ok but if i put it inside the case will it shock me again ? cause i had that probleme with the old pc. if yes what should i do ?

 

[i7Baby]

ok but if i put it inside the case will it shock me again ? - Maybe. It's not worth taking the risk. Who knows? You might have a crappy old power supply. Or you haven't put the PC together right.

Good power supplies - tiers 1, 2a and 2b of http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

Check your PC build - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

 

[Aladdin Sadok]

i have the CX600M and i bought today 1200va psu .......... i7baby one more question : i dont have earth plug in my wall output is it gonna be okay ?

 

[i7Baby]

No - your PC needs to be earthed.

 

[Aladdin Sadok]

what should i do if the apartment i live in dont have that kind of plugs?!

 

[fhcgasrvjt]

Earthing just makes sure that if any cable carrying voltage across it (aka, the positive wire) is shorted/exposed, and it touches a grounded object, the voltage will go through the ground , and because of its very low resistance, draw too much current and end up tripping the power supply or rarely, the breaker (wont damage it, its a safety feature). But considering no case is actually earthed (unless you do some work on it), having no earth pin isn't recommended incase a screw or something shorts a pin inside your PSU or on the motherboard, and potentially cause it to break/burn. Also, motherboards have a coat of something (about 100 micrometers thick) that protects against the copper traces on the PCB. Earth is actually connected to the neutral wire back at the transformer box (near your building), except because of how resistance works, the neutral will have resistance because of all the circuit things, but earth wont have any. The only real things that are earthed in computers are sometimes the brass motherboard holders and the PSU case. So, i'd recommend having a earth pin. But if you don't, maybe try not to move your computer just IN CASE the very rare but possible thing happens...