I can turn the PC on/off by touching the case

[sandsage]

Somehow it seems my case is able to turn the PC on and off - I just touch it and the computer boots or enters shutdown. I've looked and checked the wiring but can't see anything abnormal.

How do I troubleshoot this problem?

 

[ulysses35]

sounds like a short somewhere on the case / mobo / psu - you are very lucky so far not to have received a shock.

Power off the PC andremover all the power connectors, then check all the stand offs under the mobo to make sure there are no "spare" ones touching the bottom of the motherboard,

PSU's dont have a ground with the case - but this could also be the cause... though unlikely

 

[sandsage]

No loose screws or standoffs. All connections secure. Any other ideas?

 

[sandsage]

System specs, in case anyone needs them:


Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner

EVGA 012-P3-1472-AR GeForce GTX 470 (Fermi) SuperClocked 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus

Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Model BX80601930

Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

2x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

[moody89]

There's definitely a short somewhere between a component (probably your motherboard) and your case. This is the only way this can possibly occur. I always thought that Antec earthed all of their cases by standard anyway but it seems maybe not in this case. I would do as the others suggested above and double check everything including the front power switch to make sure nothing is shorting against the case. My bets would be its something to do with the front power switch. It could also be a motherboard standoff. Check these and post back!

 

[Henry Chinaski]

I always thought that Antec earthed all of their cases by standard anyway but it seems maybe not in this case.!

The PSU is earthed as you can see in the photo: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/fullimage.php?image=17667
The case is, of course, earthed too. You can see it if you look at the top of the case, on the right of the top fan.

I would disconnect the front panel of the case from the mobo and the case fans too from the mobo/PSU (leave the door of the case open to facilitate the ventilation during the test), and start the computer using the start button of the mobo. Please, don't disconnect the cpu fan.
If it works, in my opinion, the problem would be the case. Then I would start conecting things trying to locate the problem.

I'm just rambling. It can be caused by many things.
I would try to disassemble and reassemble everything for discarding mounting errors.

 

[sandsage]

It definitely seems to be the power switch. I isolated it as the only wire that activates the entire case as a power switch. The ground for the case is secure, so not sure where this is coming from - the power switch wire seems in tact along its entire length, and the switch itself looks sound from the outside upon close scrutiny.

Is it a bad case? Anything else I can do to repair this before I RMA it?

Thanks for the helps so far.

 

[sandsage]

Technically, now that I think about it, it could be the MB too...any way to isolate which is the culprit? I was angling toward the case because the MB power switch itself seems to work fine - not sure if it is linked or not to the case switch, but I would assume the circuitry would be linked.

 

[sandsage]

Ok, as an experiment, I plugged the reset switch into the power pins on the MB and started it from there - worked fine and case was not active, so I believe I have isolated the problem to the case switch itself. With that said, anything I can do to troubleshoot/replace the switch or is it RMA?

Thanks again.

 

[Henry Chinaski]

Since you have isolated the problem to the case switch itself, I would contact Antec and RMA it.

 

[sandsage]

Best answer selected by sandsage.

 

[sandsage]

Thanks Henry.