Taking off side panel freezes pc

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Waltz

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hello.

Yesterday I notice something strange in my pc. If I remove the side panel with the computer turned on it just freezes and I have to force it to shutdown. Any ideias?
 
Sounds like an ESD issue. Are you touching anything besides the side panel... board, any rear ports port, gfx card? Is this in a room with a carpeted floor? Is the PC sitting on the carpet?
 
The pc is on a wooden desk and I only touch the side panel. I allways removed the side panel with the PC turned on and this never happened until a few days ago. I actually changed my hardrive two/three days ago from the first slot allway down to the last one to improve airflow could it be that?
 


Unless you have a loose connector or a hot wire laying loose, I don't see how moving the drive to a different location would make that happen. The way you describe the issue, it sounds like static electricity is zapping something when you touch the case. Is the PSU plugged into a properly GROUNDED outlet?

Just for a test, put on a pair of gloves (rubber, cloth) and try removing the side panel. If it doesn't freeze or shut down, then it almost has to be an ESD problem.
 
Today I did a test. When I placed the hard drive into the last slot I threw some molex cables that were laying around under it. I removed them and tried to remove the side panel and the pc kept working normaly. Could it be a molex cable touching the hardrive causing it to discharge to the case?
 


Unless the connectors had exposed metal or contacts, I don't see how. The cables and connectors are non-conductive. But if something was touching the inside of the Molex where the pins are, anything is possible. Be careful of the underside of the drive; the side with the exposed circuit board.
 
Everyting is strange with this problem. Now I found out that the side panel screws have eletricity. I noticed that because I was testing out the side panel and when I started to unbolt them without shoes and with my feet on the ground I can feel a lot of eletricity. This ain't normal is it?
 
Ahh! Now we are getting someplace. You have a grounded hot wire somewhere in that case. Might be the PSU if you can actually feel it. None of the voltages on the PC side of the PSU is over 12V DC. I doubt you could feel that. I can't. But it may be that the PSU itself is defective. First check that the PSU is plugged into a grounded 3 pin receptacle.
CSI8GrE.jpg


If it is, we'll assume it is wired correctly since this only started happening recently. At this point, I would suspect the PSU is defective. Check your case wiring of course, but I suspect the PSU. What make/model is it? And the rest of your system too.
 
I'm from Europe and the plugs are a bit different but i belive that it is grounded.

System specs:

Motherboard: Asrock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer
CPU: AMD FX 6300
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Optima
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X 1600Mhz (8GB)
GPU: MSI Radeon R9 270X
Case: Coolermaster K380
Hard Drive: Western Digital Blue 1TB
PSU: XFX TS 550W

I checked the wiring and it seems to be all good. I've also heard somewhere that sometimes the motherboard can discharge some eletricity into the case could it be that? (BTW thanks a lot for your patience and help :) )
 
I've worked with PCs for a lot of years and built quite a few for myself and others. I've never heard of that one. Nor have I experienced it. But it would have to be quite a bit higher voltage that the +12VDC to allow you to actually feel it... unless you are especially sensitive to voltage.
Your components are all good quality. I was expecting to see a cheap PSU, but that is not a low quality unit. (It still could be defective)

If the problem is gone now that you moved the cables around, maybe one of the connectors has a pin sticking too far out. Or possibley a cable/wire has been pinched somewhere. That could explain it. But I for one could never feel that low of voltage.
 
A few minutes ago I had an idea. I placed an pole finder in the screw and the light turned on. Then i tried on the motherboard back connectors, in the cpu heatsink, in the gpu heat pipe and on the hardrive and all of them light up the pole finder. Does this say anything? I'm a bit concerned and afraid that the pc dies :S
 


What's a "pole finder"? We don't use that term here in the States. Is it like an induction tester, what we sometimes call a "tick tracer"?
ZWZM16z.png
 
Yes it's like a tick tracer but here where I live it's a screwdriver with a light inside. I touched with it on the screws, on the cpu cooler, on the graphics card heatsink and backshield, on the hardrive and all of them light up te tick tracer. Does this mean anything?
 


If this was while the system was running, it could just be induced voltage from the extremely high frequencies present on the motherboard. Shut down the system but leave the power supply switch on. See if the tester still lights up.
But to honest with you, those type of testers are notoriously untrustworthy. Do you have a dependable volt meter?
 
BTW I tried what you said above and with the pc turned off and the PSU on everything shows power on the tick tracer. What does it mean?
 


If the tester lights up when touching the grounded screws of the MB with the PC turned off, there would seem to be a problem with leakage. What does the tester show if you switch off the PSU?

 
I tested the motherboard screws with the pc turned off and it shows power (since I don't know the grounded screws i tried them all. If I turn off the psu the tick tracer still shows power. I'm started to be really conserned. Could the pc get burnt or something?
 


Then I'd throw away that tester. If the freeze problem is not an issue now, you are probably alright. What type of outlet do you have where you are at?
 


Chances are that if you unplug all power cables to the system and power is still present, it is just charge from the capacitors in the circuits, in either the power supply unit itself or the motherboard. I would unplug the power supply, and wait 5 or 10 minutes and then retest for power to allow the components to discharge.

There is no way that there can be power present if all power cables are disconnected unless you have a hidden battery of some form in the system.

TL;DR: Unplug the power and test for power again in 5 or 10 minutes!
 
Since i don't have one of those testers I disassembled the outlet and the earth wire isn't there. After all the outlet has earth connection but it isn't connected. So should I assume that is the problem? The only thing strange is that I had my old pc in this same spot and I never had this issue.
 
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