Static shock came through my headphones and made two monitors flicker

[Aluttrell]

So I was just sitting at my computer when all the sudden I hear a buzzing sound in my headphones then I got shocked by static electricity and two of my left monitors flickered off for a moment. They are both connected by displayport to my GTX 1070. Not sure what caused the shock, but I'm wondering if I should be concerned about any issues that may occur with my PC. Is this incident enough to cause any electrical damage? I'm not sure what even happened or what was affected but I feel that I listed enough information to gather a conclusion.

 

[photonboy]

That is concerning.
1) Yes, definitely there could be damage but you can only observe to see what happens.

2) I would investigate to see if your AC Power is properly grounded. This is the HOUSE GROUND so I don't know who you would ask.

Static is caused by a difference in potential. One thing has a different charge than another, so electrons will flow from the object with less positive charge (positive charge means another object stole some of its electrons).

So something has to create that potential difference such as:
1) Bad ground of AC wall power
2) Lighting, or other surge (i.e. bad transformer near house) through AC
3) Power Supply problem
4) Carpet (seems unlikely since the monitors flickered)

So it really seems like the wall power was the source.

*Did any other lights in the house flicker?

 

[photonboy]

http://www.apc.com/shop/us/en/products/Line-R-1200VA-Automatic-Voltage-Regulator/P-LE1200

That is a device I recommend you buy. It adds both over and undervoltage protection. It can help avoid shocks powerful enough to damage your computer or other connected components.

I plugged my Surge Protector into that after discovering we had brown outs (power issues) which actually killed two televisions.

 

[Aluttrell]

That is concerning.
1) Yes, definitely there could be damage but you can only observe to see what happens.

2) I would investigate to see if your AC Power is properly grounded. This is the HOUSE GROUND so I don't know who you would ask.

Static is caused by a difference in potential. One thing has a different charge than another, so electrons will flow from the object with less positive charge (positive charge means another object stole some of its electrons).

So something has to create that potential difference such as:
1) Bad ground of AC wall power
2) Lighting, or other surge (i.e. bad transformer near house) through AC
3) Power Supply problem
4) Carpet (seems unlikely since the monitors flickered)

So it really seems like the wall power was the source.

*Did any other lights in the house flicker?

No, nothing else flickered. I'm still not sure what caused it, but I have been using a different set of headphones and I haven't had any more issues.

 

[Aluttrell]

That is concerning.
1) Yes, definitely there could be damage but you can only observe to see what happens.

2) I would investigate to see if your AC Power is properly grounded. This is the HOUSE GROUND so I don't know who you would ask.

Static is caused by a difference in potential. One thing has a different charge than another, so electrons will flow from the object with less positive charge (positive charge means another object stole some of its electrons).

So something has to create that potential difference such as:
1) Bad ground of AC wall power
2) Lighting, or other surge (i.e. bad transformer near house) through AC
3) Power Supply problem
4) Carpet (seems unlikely since the monitors flickered)

So it really seems like the wall power was the source.

*Did any other lights in the house flicker?

No, nothing else flickered. I'm still not sure what caused it, but I have been using a different set of headphones and I haven't had any more issues.

 

[photonboy]

Obviously a power surge.
https://www.amazon.com/APC-LE1200-Automatic-Voltage-Regulator/dp/B00009RA60t

That is an excellent product. It's similar to a normal surge suppressor but it's designed to handle sustained voltages that are too high or low. Most surge suppressors can only handle very short voltage spikes.

The fact that your monitors flickered means there was a very short loss of power. Not enough to turn off your PC I guess so short enough to not drain the capacitor reserve of your PC's or monitors power supply.

(or now that I think about it, the flicker may have been the surge disrupting the monitors processes and not necessarily a loss of power... that concerns me more because it means the monitors power supply couldn't contain the surge so it spilled over to the circuits)

Maybe it's a one-time thing, but just know it IS possible to damage electronic devices with any power surge. Power supplies have protection circuitry for overvoltage and overamperage (similar but slightly different) but how good it is varies by the model.

This APC device will protect everything connected to it. I doubt monitors have very good protection built into their AC adapters.