Power Supply URGENT/DANGEROUS Shocked by Chassis

[zovc]

@breakfast & @guryhwa

I've got a system in the Logic Supply MC600 running an ArchDemon PSU I bought from Guryhwa.

It's got an ASRock Z97E ITX/ac motherboard, an i7-4790K with a Noctua NH-L9i, 16GB of RAM, a Transcend M.2 SSD, and a Galax GTX 1070.

As far as I know, I've assembled everything correctly. When the unit is connected to the modified 400W Dell AC/DC PSU I got from Guryhwa (along with the DC-ATX unit), the chassis becomes charged enough to give me a tingling feeling wherever I touch it. I have not powered the system on, as I touched the case and got shocked and took that as a PRETTY BAD SIGN.

The system was unplugged from wall power, and (I guess) there was still enough charge coming from the power brick for the case to give me another tingly shock, so I grabbed a shoe to help push against the case and remove the AC/DC brick from the DC-ATX plug (it was joined so snugly I couldn't get it out with just one hand on the connector), and now the system is sitting on my desk unplugged.

The shocks are rather minor and I'm uninjured--I'd compare them to what I'd get while working inside of telephone crossboxes in the rain for AT&T.

Where should I be looking to diagnose the source of this issue?

• Do I need to do anything special (use certain washers) to attach my motherboard to the MC600's motherboard 'tray' risers?
• I had to use a dremel to open up my serial port enough to allow the G-Unique's power connector to fit through the MC600's serial port... I didn't do anything to the PSU's connector itself, so I don't feel like this could/should be the source of the problem?
• I don't know where else this problem could be coming from?

 

[guryhwa]

make sure your AC cable which powers the brick is well electrical grounded,withoutthat, the case (also the gound of DC output negative pole)will be floating and shock you.

 

[br3nd0]

What @guryhwa says above.

I'm in Australia, our sockets/plugs look like this:

but if the image below is anything to go by, left = no ground and right = ground (that extra bottom prong).

So the AC cord from your brick to the wall SHOULD have the ground prong. If not, go out and get one NAOHW!!

 

[zovc]

The cable going into the AC-DC unit is grounded, it's the one you sent with the brick. It's plugged into a power strip (which is supposed to be grounded) that's plugged into a wall outlet. (which is also supposed to be grounded, they all have the proper connector)

I have to go out of town for work today/tomorrow, so I can't fool with things until Friday (evening), but I'll also try to take a multi-meter home from work so I can check my outlets and power strips.

For whatever it's worth, I've plugged my monitors and my laptop's power brick into this same power strip and haven't noticed any problems.

 

[darksidecookie]

Do you by any chance have carpet in this room?

And would it be possible that you where charged and by touching the case you transfered that current to the case ?(that being the shock you felt) the same happens with my macbook.

 

[K888D]

From what your describing could it be the 19v output current is somehow short circuiting on the case? The 19V would be enough to give you a tingly shock, but not to the degree of a mains voltage shock. A bit like putting your tongue on the end of a 9V battery when you were kid! Or was that just me?

 

[Biowarejak]

Or was that just me?

Nah I did that too. Seems to be a likely explanation.

 

[zovc]

Do you by any chance have carpet in this room?

And would it be possible that you where charged and by touching the case you transfered that current to the case ?(that being the shock you felt) the same happens with my macbook.

There's no carpet or anything like that in the room, and static electricity is not much of an issue where I live.

I talked to the landlord and my roommates. My roommates said they've come across some grounding issues, and the landlord said he wouldn't be surprised if the wiring in the (old) house is sketchy. I should actually be able to test tomorrow night and hopefully verify that 1.) it's the house and 2.) that my landlord will pay to have it fixed. Heh

 

[K888D]

There's no carpet or anything like that in the room, and static electricity is not much of an issue where I live.

I talked to the landlord and my roommates. My roommates said they've come across some grounding issues, and the landlord said he wouldn't be surprised if the wiring in the (old) house is sketchy. I should actually be able to test tomorrow night and hopefully verify that 1.) it's the house and 2.) that my landlord will pay to have it fixed. Heh

Can you plug your pc in another house with good wiring to eliminate whether it's related to grounding?

 

[zovc]

Can you plug your pc in another house with good wiring to eliminate whether it's related to grounding?

I'm going to try to do that tomorrow night as well. Might have to wait until Friday.

 

[Choidebu]

Growing up with computers this is no news to me. What a clickbait title. Dangerous? Tingly dangerous? Lol come on. Old cases used to do this (all steel and no paint or thin scratched paint) and solvable by properly grounding it like everyone else has said.

 

[confusis]

Two generations of HP Elitebook laptops (Core2Duo, Sandybridge i5) have done this for me - I'm not worried

 

[K888D]

It's not something I've ever really known about if I'm honest, especially for it being normal. If something I owned that was plugged into the mains was giving me a small shock my first reaction would be that it's faulty and I would be worried about safety.

 

[Choidebu]

I kinda liked it as a teenager. Maybe I'm weird

 

[zovc]

I try be aware of the fact that electricity could kill me. Given that I don't understand what was happening or why, I recon it's wise to consider what was happening dangerous. What benefit comes from trying to act like a tough guy or belittle me here?

I don't know how old you are, but I've been working on computers for the majority of my 27 years of life and this has never happened to me, sorry if I overreacted.

 

[ricochet]

@zovc "Why so serious?" I reckon that post from @Choidebu was typed more in jest (tongue n'cheek) than belittlement or as a personal jab at you.

 

[AleksandarK]

No worry, it can't kill you. Belive me. It happened to me many times.

But, as other suggested, it may be bad wiring in your house, poor grounding of wall socket and some miss placement of the wires.

Try to insulate the wires coming into your DC unit with some electrical tape.

Try pacing your PC on some rubber surface.

Try putting washers on motherboard standoff.

If none of that works, try not to touch your PC!

 

[zovc]

Okay, I was able to borrow a multi-meter. Turns out, in spite of every outlet inside of the house being of the three-prong variety, none of them are grounded.

Tomorrow I should be able to verify that there isn't anything wrong with the system itself using outlets at work. But, I'm pretty comfortable assuming that all of the components (including the MC600 and the G-Unique PSU and modded 400W brick) are fine with this new information. Hopefully the landlord is willing to pay for the electrician and maybe I can schmooze them into running a few Ethernet cables while they're doing their thing.

 

[confusis]

Wow, no grounds/earths. That's proper dodgy!

 

[jtd871]

Wow, no grounds/earths. That's proper dodgy!

If I were a professional linguist, I could and absolutely would write an entire paper on "proper dodgy"!