Question I might have destroyed my new build because I'm an idiot

[Esawer]

I built my first high end gaming PC a few days ago, but I don't have grounding in my outlets right now. I thought that it would be fine to install windows on the PC and check if everything works properly. I had a dumb idea that I should check if there is any electricity on the grounding pin of my extension cord while I was installing windows. I touched a metal pipe and the grounding pin at the same time and I felt electricity going through my body, the monitor started flickering and after a few (between 5-20, I dont remember it clearly) seconds I gathered the courage to unplug my PC. It turns out that the pipe somehow had some voltage on it (I touched it after turning everything off and it zapped me). I had a mental breakdown after that so idk if I remeber it correctly but I might have seen some graphical glitches while it was happening. I checked if it was turning on and it booted to the windows installer, but it took a little longer than booting to BIOS and two of the diagnostic leds (problably GPU and RAM) were glowing for a while before it booted. I will have grounding installed in my outlets this weekend, I'm afraid to plug in my PC until I will have it installed. I'm totally devastated right now. How likely is that I damaged my PC?

 

[stonecarver]

I had a dumb idea that I should check if there is any electricity on the grounding pin of my extension cord while I was installing windows. I touched a metal pipe and the grounding pin at the same time and I felt electricity going through my body,

Be on the safe side and wait till proper grounds are met and go from there. It's not the PC that concerns me but your health. Life lesson don't be a human ground wire.

 

[Esawer]

Be on the safe side and wait till proper grounds are met and go from there. It's not the PC that concerns me but your health. Life lesson don't be a human ground wire.

Well, my mental health is already ruined. The voltage wasn't big, it didn't hurt but I still felt it. I'm afraid that it had traveled through my monitor and HDMI cable to the GPU and damaged it.

 

[Misgar]

I touched a metal pipe and the grounding pin at the same time and I felt electricity going through my body

Wow! A human voltmeter. A digital multimeter set to read AC Volts would have been much safer.

What you probably experienced was a very low leakage current from the Class-Y capacitors inside the ATX PSU. These capacitors connect Line to chassis and Neutral to chassis and filter out high frequency noise. When the ATX PSU chassis is grounded correctly, these leakage currents flow harmlessly down to ground and not through your body.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technical-articles/safety-capacitor-class-x-and-class-y-capacitors/

It turns out that the pipe somehow had some voltage on it (I touched it after turning everything off and it zapped me).

Pipes are usually (but not always) at ground potential. What you might have felt was a "normal" static discharge, as experienced when walking across a carpet and reaching for a metal door knob. Metal water pipes emerging from underground are often used as the mains safety earth in a building.

it booted to the windows installer, but it took a little longer than booting to BIOS and two of the diagnostic leds (problably GPU and RAM) were glowing for a while before it booted.

It's possible the system was doing nothing more exciting than "RAM retraining". This can take several minutes on a brand new system.

How likely is that I damaged my PC?

If it booted up into the Windows Installer, it's probably fine. Panic over.

The mains earth connected to your ATX PSU is a safety feature. Not only does it stop you from feeling a mild buzzing sensation when you touch exposed metalwork, but it also routes large fault currents down to ground, blowing a mains fuse, or tripping a circuit breaker, if a serious fault develops inside the PSU.

 

[Misgar]

The voltage wasn't big,

You might be surprised at the voltage level on an ATX PSU's metal case, with no safety earth connected.

The Class-Y capacitors in the PSU form a capacitive divider, with Line and Neutral at either end of the chain and the mid point connected to the ATX PSU's metal case.

If your Line input is at 230V AC, you'll see up to 115V AC (with respect to ground) at very high impedance, on the PSU case.

If your Line input is 120V AC, you'll see up to 60V AC on the ATX chassis. Again because the impedance is high, the Class-Y capacitor leakage currents are very small. 60V AC is just above the 50V AC SELV (Separated or Safety Extra Low Voltage) limit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-low_voltage

That's why you feel a slight buzzing, tingling sensation from Class-Y capacitor leakage, instead of a much larger lethal mains shock if you touch the AC Line input directly.

 

[Esawer]

You might be surprised at the voltage level on an ATX PSU's metal case, with no safety earth connected.

The Class-Y capacitors in the PSU form a capacitive divider, with Line and Neutral at either end of the chain and the mid point connected to the ATX PSU's metal case.

If your Line input is at 230V AC, you'll see up to 115V AC (with respect to ground) at very high impedance, on the PSU case.

If your Line input is 120V AC, you'll see up to 60V AC on the ATX chassis. Again because the impedance is high, the Class-Y capacitor leakage currents are very small. 60V AC is just above the 50V AC SELV (Separated or Safety Extra Low Voltage) limit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra-low_voltage

That's why you feel a slight buzzing, tingling sensation from Class-Y capacitor leakage, instead of a much larger lethal mains shock if you touch the AC Line input directly.

I still dont understand why my monitor started glitching if there wasn't any voltage on the pipe.

 

[Misgar]

1), Take a digital multimter, set it to the 600V AC range. Connect one lead to your mains safety earth (when installed). Connect the other lead to an exposed metal part on the pipe.. Check the voltage (if there is any).

2). Presumably your monitor wasn't grounded either when you observed the glitching. The digital voltages used to control a monitor are less than 5V DC. When you earthed the ATX PSU through your body, you also earthed the monitor through the HDMI (or similar) cable.

3). If your AC mains is 230V, the ATX PSU's metalwork and in turn, the shield braid(s) surrounding the signal wires in the HDMI cable might have been sitting at up to 115V AC, until you grounded the PSU. Sudden voltage changes from 115V down to 0V and back up again could be induced on the HDMI signal wires running at a much lower voltage. In EMC parlance, this type of electrical interference is known Conducted Emissions Susceptibility.
https://eepower.com/technical-articles/an-overview-of-conducted-emissions-part-1/#

4). Of course, I could be wrong. Your metal pipe might be at an elevated (potentially dangerous) voltage. Do you know if it is a water pipe, gas pipe or a metal conduit. We won't know until you get a mains safety earth installed and measure any voltage present on the pipe. I'm thankful I live in a country where Electrical Codes of Practice dictate that all house mains supplies are fitted with a safety earth.

5). Stop worrying about what ifs. Wait until the safety earth is installed. Non life threatening disasters can usually be fixed with more money.

 

[Viking2121]

Yeah sounds like something it back feeding through the ground at the house/building, I've lived in a house like that before and it turned out to be how they wired in the hot water tank to the old wiring in the house and how the grounding was.

Definitely have that checked out by an electrician. But as for the PC, Im sure the PC would be fine if it boots up into the windows install.

 

[Esawer]

Yeah sounds like something it back feeding through the ground at the house/building, I've lived in a house like that before and it turned out to be how they wired in the hot water tank to the old wiring in the house and how the grounding was.

Definitely have that checked out by an electrician. But as for the PC, Im sure the PC would be fine if it boots up into the windows install.

I already have the grounding installed but I didn't test if the PC works properly yet (I'm still downloading Cyberpunk) but so far it seems fine, besides one thing - I can't set my RAM to its full speed. It doesn't want to work at clock speeds higher than 5600MHz (it should work at 6000).