Question Touching the case of my PC caused BSOD

[modeonoff]

Hello, I touched the case of my PC and it looked like there was some kind of small spark. Then, BSOD showed up and the screen told me to wait for Windows 10 to collect information and it would restart. It never restarted for over an hour so I forced the machine to shut down. What could be the reason for the BSOD and how should I prevent this from happening again?
I have been using the same case for about six years.

Case: be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900 rev.2
PSU: Corsair AXI Series, AX1600i

 

[General_Cool]

You shorted out your PC. This is caused by creating an electrostatic charge on your body, which could have been caused by you rubbing fuzzy socks on a carpet, or rubbing your clothes on a cloth couch/chair, etc. Touching bare metal, AKA "grounding" yourself, on the case of the PC while it was on, sent all of that static electricity directly into the PC. It sounds like the power supply mitigated it since its quite a high end unit (and thus has protections for this very event built in). Has the computer turned back on now? If so then that means it survived the attack, but if not it may be time for funeral arrangements...

In the future, if you feel like you have some type of static charge, touch bare metal that is not connected to electricity. Could be the mechanism for reclining or going up and down under your chair, as most of the parts are made of metal.

 

[modeonoff]

This happened about a week ago. I just forced it to shut down and turned it on. It works fine.

I don't wear socks at home and there is no carpet. I was wearing slippers. As I recall, I walked into the room and touched the PC case. Then, OSOD showed up.

Isn't the PC grounded via the PSU which has a ground pin in the plug?

 

[General_Cool]

This happened about a week ago. I just forced it to shut down and turned it on. It works fine.

I don't wear socks at home and there is no carpet. I was wearing slippers. As I recall, I walked into the room and touched the PC case. Then, OSOD showed up.

Isn't the PC grounded via the PSU which has a ground pin in the plug?

When the power supply is plugged in to the wall, any static electricity that you discharge into the PC will be sent through the power supply and into the the cable which is grounded through the normal electrical system of the house. What most likely happened is when you touched the case, it went through to your motherboard which detected the voltage change and crashed to protect itself, since voltage is what kills PC components (causes arcing, blown capacitors, etc.). Its strange that it didn't immediately turn off, so what I suspect actually happened is one specific part of the board cut power which caused windows to crash.

Either way, sounds like it didn't cause any permanent damage, and its unlikely it would have anyways unless you did it all the time. PC components usually die from static discharge when they're being assembled and there is no direct connection between the ground in your house to the part.

 

[geofelt]

Check your wall outlet for proper grounding and polarization.
A $10 tester like this will check:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-Outlet-Tester-OT-112/321995342