static electricity turning off computer!

[nate39]

A friend whom I built a computer for with this motherboard -GA-MA69GM-S2H - just called and said that sometimes when one of them touch it, even if the dog touches it, the static electricity will cause it to turn off. Has anyone ever heard of this before? It has been cold in upstate NY and the static electricity has been worse than usual but shouldn't the grounding take care of this? What can I do? The system is about a year old. Thanks

[informal]

Seems like the case is not grounded via the power supply unit properly(PSU went bad?).

[tool_462]

I've turned my PC on lots of times in my static friendly climate (dry, cold Minnesota) by shocking the power button before I actually push it. Is your friends system shutting off when it gets touched anywhere on the case?

Either way I'd just take a piece of copper wire and ground the case to something, or teach your friend to ground him/herself before touching their computer ;)

[tool_462]

To note: My case is wood so I'm free to touch it wherever I want (except the power button :P)

[swaaye]

I have a plastic floor mat under me at home that is like a static power generator. I wish I could harness its incredible electrical field for the good of humanity. I actually shock USB ports through the mouse just with regular computer use lol. Occasionally have to unplug/replug the mouse cuz the USB port freaks out... It's like a 0 to 20F desert here in WI right now and that dry air is great for making static.

All you can do is try to better ground yourself so the static doesn't jump from you to your grounded comp the moment you get near. Take your shoes off so you don't have rubber soles. Add some humidity to your home.

[nate39]

yeah I think they have turned it off by just touching the keyboard or mouse. I will find out more today. What would be a good thing to run the wire from the box to for a good ground? thanks

[BertM]

i use the radiator becuase i dont have a ground in my outlet. and every electrical components is connected to eachother here via copper wires.
i had 2 mobo with broken sound chip when i didnt use proper ground, i hope that never happens again now.

the power supplies have 2 capacitors from 220/110 and nul to its ground. that creates a 110/55 volt offset compared to the real ground it suppose to make contact with. now you got your comp on floating voltage making it vulnerable to contacts that are grounded or have a different potential.
you can actualy feel this voltage by rubbing with your back side of your hand over the non grounded metal parts while only standing besides the comp.

[Particle]

I killed a computer once due to a static discharge that went through 1/8" of plastic (thumb drive) even. I can't imagine how many gigaohms that is but it still killed the computer when my thumb drive touched the USB port. In fact, the video card in that machine would kill any motherboard it was plugged into after that.

[soundood]

this is a very US thing ehh?

over the pond here in the UK we have to have all our major electrical apliances 'earthed'

heres a pick of inside our computer plugs,

http://www.derby.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1F54FD71-DF76-47D8-A76A-D09DC0EB9173/0/25plug.jpg

[Particle]

Computers are supposed to be grounded and usually are, but that doesn't always stop component failure.

[swaaye]

this is a very US thing ehh?

over the pond here in the UK we have to have all our major electrical apliances 'earthed'

No, we here in the US have triple prong outlets (one is ground) unless the home is very old and has only two-prong w/o ground. I've run into people using those evil 3->2 prong adapters for their comps, with which you are supposed to manually wire up a ground but no one ever does. The comps usually do work fine, but obviously it's not really a good idea to do that.

[nate39]

Well, I have passed on some of this to them. I am sure they aren't using 3 to 2 prong adapters or anything like that. But it seems to be the daughter's touch that is the worse. She even turned it off by touching the keyboard. Then he told me that they just recently changed the surge protector so I told them to go back to the old one and see if that takes care of it. It always helps when you get all the facts! Thanks

[Particle]

Yes. It would also help if they grounded themselves on another earthed thing before touching the computer (after sitting down, etc, the stuff that makes static).