Static shocking PC causing restarts

[TJ Hooker]

Lately I've been having some issues where I'll touch my PC, resulting in a shock. This will sometimes cause my CPU fan to audibly kick into high gear (even though the CPU is idling), which I fix with a restart. Other times it's caused the PC to immediately shutdown or reboot. At least once it caused a bluescreen (can't remember the message unfortunately). In every case it seems to boot up just fine after.

Now, the first explanation that comes to mind is that I recently moved somewhere with very low humidity, and an apartment with thick, staticy carpets. I'm constantly shocking things, PC or otherwise. However, I'm worried about damaging my PC. I checked the continuity between a case screw and the grounding prong of the power bar my PC is plugged into, so there isn't a grounding issue there. I obviously can't check my building's wiring as easily, but it's a fairly nice place built in 2006, so I can't see it having improper wiring/grounding.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[thx1138v2]

That's a bad environment for a PC. You could touch something else first to discharge yourself before touching the PC or you could look into using a grounding wrist strap. Check with any computer shop in the area. It's likely they have the problem also - and a solution.

Be sure to keep the machine clean internally. Dust will build up huge charges in those conditions. So don't keep the PC on the floor. That's where dust settles and it WILL get into your machine.

And be doubly careful if or when you connect/disconnect cables cables from the ports on the back of the PC. A co-worker was trying to plug a mouse into a mouse port one time on a machine that was on the carpet on the floor under his desk and we had super low humidity in our area that day. A spark jumped from his finger to the mouse port on the motherboard and fried the motherboard. That's been a lot of years ago and the motherboards may be more robust now but why take the chance?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Are those case screws painted? Sometimes the paint on the screw may actually insulate rather than conduct like screws should. Just a far stretch but possible.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Are those case screws painted? Sometimes the paint on the screw may actually insulate rather than conduct like screws should. Just a far stretch but possible.

Yeah, a number of the screws are painted, and thus insulated. However, the screws securing the power supply are ground points (figured this out back when I was first building and looking for spots to ground myself). Basically, I was trying to verify that my case is properly grounded, and if screws in the case are grounded then I figure the rest of the case should be too. I figured that if it is grounded, then any shocks I deliver to the case should (hopefully) be safely sinked to ground, which I thought would protect the internal components. Although clearly they still seem to be affected :/

 

[TJ Hooker]

That's a bad environment for a PC. You could touch something else first to discharge yourself before touching the PC or you could look into using a grounding wrist strap. Check with any computer shop in the area. It's likely they have the problem also - and a solution.

Be sure to keep the machine clean internally. Dust will build up huge charges in those conditions. So don't keep the PC on the floor. That's where dust settles and it WILL get into your machine.

Won't be going with the wrist strap option. Just too annoying to have put it on and off every time I sit down at my desk. I guess I'll try to discharge myself beforehand, but unfortunately there's really nothing within reach of my desk to do so it'll be kind of tedious. Sometimes I don't even mean to touch my PC, I'll just be absently-minded reaching for something near or on it (it sits on my desk) and brush it resulting in a shock. Maybe I can move it a bit more out of the way so I don't touch it by accident, and just try and remember to discharge myself before turning it on/off.

 

[thx1138v2]

You don't have to wear the ground strap. You could just hook it up and set it within easy reach on the desk and touch when you need to.