Maybe I ruined my latest project because I'm a fool?
Maybe I ruined my latest project because I'm a fool?
I recently assembled my first high-end gaming PC, but I’m not sure about the grounding of my outlets at the moment. I considered installing Windows and testing everything, thinking it would be safe. I had a hunch I should verify if there was any electricity on the grounding pin of my extension cord during installation. While touching a metal pipe, the grounding pin conducted electricity through me, causing my monitor to flicker. After a few seconds (between 5 and 20, I’m not sure), I decided to unplug the PC.
It turned out the pipe had some voltage on it (I felt it after turning everything off). I experienced a mental breakdown afterward, so I’m uncertain if I remember it correctly, but I might have seen some graphical issues during that time.
After checking, the PC did power on and booted to the Windows installer, though it took longer than expected to reach BIOS. Two diagnostic LEDs—probably for GPU and RAM—lit up briefly before it started. I plan to install grounding in my outlets this weekend, so I’ll wait until then before plugging in the PC. I’m really upset right now. How likely is it that I damaged my PC?
Wow! A simple human voltmeter would have been a safer choice. What you likely felt was a minimal leakage current from the Class-Y capacitors within the ATX PSU. These capacitors link Line to chassis and Neutral to chassis, helping to eliminate high-frequency noise. When the ATX PSU chassis is properly grounded, these currents safely dissipate into the ground without passing through your body.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technic...apacitors/
Ground connections are often (though not always) at the same potential as the earth. What you perceived might have been a typical static discharge, such as when walking on carpet and touching a metal door handle. Underground metal water pipes are frequently used as the building’s main earth connection.
It's conceivable the system was just going through "RAM retraining," which can take several minutes on a brand new setup.
If it started up into the Windows Installer, it should be fine—no need to panic.
The mains earth linked to your ATX PSU serves as an important safety measure. It prevents you from sensing a slight buzz when touching exposed metal parts and safely directs large fault currents to ground, triggering a fuse or circuit breaker if a serious issue arises inside the PSU.
You could be impressed by the voltage level inside an ATX PSU's metal enclosure, especially since no safety earth is connected.
The Class-Y capacitors create a capacitive divider, with Line and Neutral at each end and the middle linked to the PSU's metal case.
When your Line input is 230V AC, you'll notice up to 115V AC (relative to ground) on the PSU case.
If your Line input is 120V AC, the ATX chassis will show up to 60V AC.
Because of the high impedance, the Class-Y capacitor leakage currents remain minimal. This 60V AC is just above the 50V AC SELV (Separated or Safety Extra Low Voltage) threshold.
This explains the faint buzzing or tingling you might feel from Class-Y capacitor leakage, rather than a strong dangerous shock if you touch the AC Line input directly.
1), Use a digital multimeter, adjust it to the 600V AC range. Attach one lead to your mains safety earth (when installed). Attach the other lead to an exposed metal part on the pipe. Verify the voltage if possible.
2). It seems your monitor wasn’t grounded during the glitching. The digital voltages controlling the monitor are below 5V DC. Grounding the ATX PSU through your body also grounds the monitor via the HDMI (or similar) cable.
3). If your AC mains is 230V, the metal components of the ATX PSU and the shield braid around the HDMI cable might have been exposed to up to 115V AC until you grounded the PSU. Sudden drops from 115V to 0V and back could affect the HDMI signal wires, which operate at a much lower voltage. In EMC terms, this is called Conducted Emissions Susceptibility.
https://eepower.com/technical-articles/a...ns-part-1/
4). Perhaps I’m mistaken. Your metal pipe could be at a higher (possibly hazardous) voltage. Do you know if it’s a water pipe, gas pipe, or metal conduit? We won’t know until you install a mains safety earth and check the voltage on the pipe. I appreciate living in a country where Electrical Codes of Practice require all house mains to have a safety earth.
5). Don’t overthink it. Wait for the safety earth to be installed. Non-life-threatening issues can often be resolved with additional funds.
It seems like something is being sent back through the ground at the house or building. I've lived in a similar house before and it turned out to be how the hot water tank was wired to the old wiring, along with the grounding setup. Definitely need an electrician to check this out. As for the PC, I'm sure it would work fine if it boots up into the windows install.
I already have the grounding installed but I didn't test if the PC works properly yet (I'm still downloading Cyberpunk) but so far it seems fine, besides one thing - I can't set my RAM to its full speed. It doesn't want to work at clock speeds higher than 5600MHz (it should work at 6000).
What CPU do you have? It's not unusual, sometimes you need a bit more adjustment to reach the RAM's rated XMP/DOCP performance, and it might not even hit its profile speeds. Most CPUs come with a suggested speed they can run the RAM at, and another for four sticks since the controller may struggle with four. DDR5 base jdec speeds are around 4800MT/s. I don't seem to recall much about DDR5 yet—I haven't kept up with it recently.