PC boots only when touched by HDMI end!

Ok so I have previously bent the pins on my mobo hence I have had boot up issues since last year, had my mobo replaced recently, lived without a PC for almost 2 months, now that my PC is alive and kicking recently I came across a new issue which I never would have had expected as it was new, booting and shutting down was a breeze compared to previous MOBO (previous was a Gigabyte Z97MX-5 mobo, now dumb me went again with a Gigabyte Z97M D3H mobo - micro ATX) now power button does not even respond when booting on but it responds when pressed to shut down, heck even reset hence I had trouble booting up my PC since 3 days now. Dumb me discovered only one way to boot up the PC, removing the HDMI cable at the GPU side and touching its metal end it on the PCI bracket of the GPU (gigabyte gtx 970 G1) and I would literally see a small spark from it and it turns on the PC! I guess its relative to that testing of the mobo with two screwdrivers to make it boot (some sort of shorting or something) but I doubt this is a safe alternative way of booting up a PC, now my doubt is why this is happening, I fairly got a good PC setup (PSU is a Corsair AX 760) CPU is an i5 4690K, 8 GB ram, 120gb SSD boot drive, 1 TB HDD, hyper 212 evo, Asus DVD drive and 4 case fans. All the parts are now a year and a half old and this was my first PC build.
help a brother out and it will greatly appreciated.

weird, that sounds like a bad short/ground problem somewhere...
I would recommend removing everything from the case and try it outside on the mobo box to see how it runs. make sure you disconnect and reseat every connection. if it still does it outside the case try another psu if you can and go from there.

pendragon1 said:

weird, that sounds like a bad short/ground problem somewhere...
I would recommend removing everything from the case and try it outside on the mobo box to see how it runs. make sure you disconnect and reseat every connection. if it still does it outside the case try another psu if you can and go from there.

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hmm I will have to get it checked by a shop who has more pro experience than me, actually when I got this PC running good again since 2 weeks back, booting up seemed normal up until this week where it got cranky,
What do you suspect buddy? is it my case power switch? my HDMI cable which I had the casing remove at the end where it plugs to the GPU since there something blocking in the PCI bracket in my cheapish Cooler Master N200 case but I taped it with an electro black tape? or my GPU?
Hell I wish it was only the power switch, since I got a platinum rated corsair AX760 PSU which survived trial and error test ruling out that suspicion of being faulty...

hella confused right now man jeez

maybe try a different hdmi cable. loosen the screw on the gpu and adjust it to fit better. see if that does anything. it could be something got damaged with the cable you stripped. if that doesn't help take it to where you got the mobo installed and show them what its doing.

anyone could offer more insights? it'll be appreciated

anybody else wanna chime in since it seems my suggestions aren't good enough?! just take it to the shop if you are not going to try anything because youre not "pro" enough.

Try a different power outlet. Just switch the reset button to be your on/off since it works.

Yeah, as pendragon is saying... not much we can do if you don't feel you're [H] enough to pull the board and do proper troubleshooting. It's a short -- it wouldn't be discharging like that if there weren't one. There's either a defect in or damage to your motherboard, a short between the board and case, or any number of other things could be the problem, but you need to pull the board and try running caseless first. You may find as you're pulling it out that there's an extra standoff installed in the case that's shorting out on the board, or a loose screw under it. Any number of things.

pendragon1 said:

anybody else wanna chime in since it seems my suggestions aren't good enough?! just take it to the shop if you are not going to try anything because youre not "pro" enough.

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Buddy I am really not that confident and time is of the essence for me, I will try to do it as how you suggested it

King Icewind said:

Try a different power outlet. Just switch the reset button to be your on/off since it works.

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Tried this one last night, did not really work out but when the PC is running normally the power and reset switch seems normally functioning except only when its about to be turned on.

silent-circuit said:

Yeah, as pendragon is saying... not much we can do if you don't feel you're [H] enough to pull the board and do proper troubleshooting. It's a short -- it wouldn't be discharging like that if there weren't one. There's either a defect in or damage to your motherboard, a short between the board and case, or any number of other things could be the problem, but you need to pull the board and try running caseless first. You may find as you're pulling it out that there's an extra standoff installed in the case that's shorting out on the board, or a loose screw under it. Any number of things.

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I really don't understand the term short sorry buddy, so there's millions of reasons why this could be happening eh? alright imma put my [H] balls on and do the experimentation tonight, hopefully I will still live LOL

evilsofa said:

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Pun level over 9000

what I am suspecting is that HDMI maybe is shorted but to think it is not related to the computers power supply or a usb device that I have I hope its not my AX760 dangit one problem after another...

Actually, that's a very simple diagram explaining what happens when there's a short circuit. Or "short." The electricity goes back to ground - in that case the negative terminal of the battery, in the PC's case back to the wall - before getting where it should. Usually though a piece of metal that shouldn't be there - a loose screw across contacts, a piece of wire in the wrong place, a bent section of the case that's touching where it shouldn't on the motherboard, broken insulation... lots of options.

So, pun level zero.

silent-circuit said:

Actually, that's a very simple diagram explaining what happens when there's a short circuit. Or "short." The electricity goes back to ground - in that case the negative terminal of the battery, in the PC's case back to the wall - before getting where it should. Usually though a piece of metal that shouldn't be there - a loose screw across contacts, a piece of wire in the wrong place, a bent section of the case that's touching where it shouldn't on the motherboard, broken insulation... lots of options.

So, pun level zero.

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silent-circuit
evilsofa
King Icewind
pendragon1

and [H]

Thank you all, I did all the suggested steps and I concluded that my PSU was not the culprit, thank god it is in tip top shape Corsair AX 760
Disassembled the PC, took that stock mobo box and wore my [H] balls and shorted the power pins and wala its aliiiiiiiiiveee!
The main issue was the chipped paint job at the back of the case where PCIe slot and gpu meet, it seems that it did not like the bare metal touching the GPU bracket itself silent-circuit "piece of metal that shouldn't be there"
What happened last year is that I tried to bend and break that curved steel same as this image below cause it did not allow the HDMI cable to be inserted flush and I don't have a DVI slot on my monitor
Dumb me only damaged the paint job and exposed the bare steel metal that was touching the GPU bracket, what I did = placed some electrical tape on the chipped parts and wala it works again!
TLDR
here are the images of my ghetto rigged gaming PC;






Yep did that acrylic side panel mod myself LOL

just a little update guys when I woke up this morning and wanted to turn on the pc, again it would not!
tried to remove all the cables attached while the PSU switch already was flipped to O off, but when I tried to remove the Ethernet cable and touched a little bit of the case metal at the back part, it zapped me! shet thank god I am still alive now I then flipped the psu switch to I and suddenly I heard a weird pop that occured months back also. I am really frustrated as to what the problem of my PC...is it the GPU the HDMI cable or my power cables not properly grounded?

You have a short somewhere on the case, or possibly a damaged/defective PSU or power cabling inside the case.

Stop using the machine. Bring it to a professional. Not to offend, but you clearly aren't capable of troubleshooting this and it is legitimately dangerous at this point.

Really enjoying this very funny and sad experience of mine LOL so last night took the pc to a shop to have them check my rig tech guy was so confident in testing with his own PSU but when I said can we please try to turning on the pc with my own Corsair AX760 PSU he was scared shitless and had to talk to his boss about the risk, I repeatedly gave him assurance that my PSU is fine tested it outside the case and its a "corsair 80 plus platinum" rated psu and it wont go bonkers on their shop when turned on and it did turn on! from that point realized I need to replace the PSU power cable, HDMI, DVI male to HDMI female adapter and a new power strip, needed the most trusted one since I will use plastic money anyways so fast forward now its morning turned on the pc and wala its now working normal, turned it off then attempted to turn on again, switched the PSU off for a few seconds and flipped it back on and then PC turned on again... the randomness of my pc just even makes my experience more colorful... here are the images... might leave the pc on until I get annoyed by that noisy two 120MM SP120 Corsair Fans
here are the images:

Remove motherboard and reseat it, also check ALL cables inside your pc.

Oh and try another power supply, dont be so confident that its not the corsair ax thats the problem.

Also to rule shit out, connect it to a different monitor and do not use any of the external cables that you are using at the moment to connect it to your monitor, I mention this as you said ypu saw a spark coming from the hdmi cable when you unplugged it from your pc.

IMPORTANT, when unplugging and plugging cables in ALWAYS switch the power off at the wall, not just the device and that also relates to your monitor aswell.

Basically, remove the motherboard and unplug all wires from everything inside the case and rebuild it carefully or get someone to do it for you, I can guess it will only take roughly 1 hour to rip down and rebuilb in total.

Then test it on a different monitor using that monitors video signal cable whatever it maybe, dvi hdmi etc. Also do you use desktop speakers ? remove those from the loop to see if its a fault with there power supply thats causing it, so just unplug the audio cable from your pc to the speakers or stereo for the time being.

But you have to remove your motherboard to see if there is anything stuck under it like a screw etc, if once its rebuilt and everything looks ok then look at your wall socket, get a electrician in and dont you mess with it.

Btw if you heard a pop ages ago and then another pop not long ago, if it wasnt something related to your audio then something is fuked.

That surge arrestor will not stop a short circuit happening inside your pc, trust me on that one.

Until you start taking things apart no one can really tell what the cause is, but the more you continue to use it like this the more chance it will never ever turn back on.

Just to add, take some pictures of the inside of your pc in a well lit room or with a torch or bright light so we can see if anything stands out which may be the cause.

also, are you plugged into that oddball adapter/splitter I see behind the monitor? if so, perhaps that's not grounded correctly. try connecting you psu power cable directly to that wall/mains socket or another one all together.

What the hell are you saying.

Learn to english bro.

EDIT: The most amusing part about this? I was referring to the OP's strange stream of consciousness zero punctuation nonsense above, not Pendragon as everyone seems to have assumed. Including the OP.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:

Remove motherboard and reseat it, also check ALL cables inside your pc.

Oh and try another power supply, dont be so confident that its not the corsair ax thats the problem.

Also to rule shit out, connect it to a different monitor and do not use any of the external cables that you are using at the moment to connect it to your monitor, I mention this as you said ypu saw a spark coming from the hdmi cable when you unplugged it from your pc.

IMPORTANT, when unplugging and plugging cables in ALWAYS switch the power off at the wall, not just the device and that also relates to your monitor aswell.

Basically, remove the motherboard and unplug all wires from everything inside the case and rebuild it carefully or get someone to do it for you, I can guess it will only take roughly 1 hour to rip down and rebuilb in total.

Then test it on a different monitor using that monitors video signal cable whatever it maybe, dvi hdmi etc. Also do you use desktop speakers ? remove those from the loop to see if its a fault with there power supply thats causing it, so just unplug the audio cable from your pc to the speakers or stereo for the time being.

But you have to remove your motherboard to see if there is anything stuck under it like a screw etc, if once its rebuilt and everything looks ok then look at your wall socket, get a electrician in and dont you mess with it.

Btw if you heard a pop ages ago and then another pop not long ago, if it wasnt something related to your audio then something is fuked.

That surge arrestor will not stop a short circuit happening inside your pc, trust me on that one.

Until you start taking things apart no one can really tell what the cause is, but the more you continue to use it like this the more chance it will never ever turn back on.

Just to add, take some pictures of the inside of your pc in a well lit room or with a torch or bright light so we can see if anything stands out which may be the cause.

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Already did this, let me soak test it first like headphones' burn in test. Felt sad after reading your last line, like a doomsday prophecy, I hope not!

pendragon1 said:

also, are you plugged into that oddball adapter/splitter I see behind the monitor? if so, perhaps that's not grounded correctly. try connecting you psu power cable directly to that wall/mains socket or another one all together.

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Uhmm I understood what you said yes I will find a way to directly plug in the wall outlet

silent-circuit said:

What the hell are you saying.

Learn to english bro.

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ESL for him maybe?

Wow. Just.....Wow.

jcagara08 said:

ESL for him maybe?

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Yup, exactly like that


Rebuild your computer from the motherboard on up and make sure all connections are hooked up properly and that there is nothing touching the motherboard underneath like say a small trapped screw thats causing the short.

Once you have checked out your pc thoroughly and if its still doing it then try it on a different monitor since you said you were having sparks come out of the hdmi cable when you disconnected it from the gpu, it was probably still connected to the monitor and the monitor probably still powered on at the time ? so to rule that out try another one.

Basically at this moment in time everything inside your pc is suspect.

Take it apart and make sure the mobo is seated properly and nothing from the case is touching it except the screws that hold down the motherboard into the brass stand offs.

And just disconnect your audio cable from the back of the pc, no need to do shit with it except unplug it.

As mentioned before, you keep messing about with it sooner or later you wont have a working pc to mess with.

If you can, download the motherboard manual and that will tell you everything you need to know about removing and refitting the motherboard, if you havent already got a paper copy.

Go slow, be thorough and double check and triple check everything and you wont go wrong.

If you feel its still too hard for you to do then take it to someone and get them to do it instead.

If it works ok with them but then starts playing up when you get it back then it points to either your power socket or anything thats connected to it or something thats connected to the pc, whether thats the monitor, speakers, modem, usb etc, anything that connects can cause problems especially when electricity is involved.

Wyodiver said:

Wow. Just.....Wow.

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your baffled with my topic or with the replies? LOL I really don't know the state of my PC now

let me soak test it first

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imma put my [H] balls on

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You know, it's all fun and games but you need to realise that you can still get seriously hurt even though it's "just" a PC. If some piece of wire is loose inside the PSU and it comes in contact with the case, the case itself may become "live". Remember that you're dealing with 230 volts here. If you are unsure about things being grounded, always tap a metal surface first, preferably with a knuckle, never grab any edges with your hand or your muscles will contract and "glue" you for a second to the electric surface.

You seem to be going about this in a slightly chaotic way. Let me do a check-list for you which summarizes some of the suggestions people have put forth:
1. bypass your power strip and connect your PC and your monitor/TV directly to "the wall".
2. the metal bracket of the GPU is supposed to touch the case. However, I have seen instances where the bracket was touching the left edge of the motherboard. Now, it should not touch the MOBO, but it should touch the case.
3. disconnect any USB, audio and other devices that you don't need that much
4. report back in a day or two when you are sure the problem persists or not

as micharlz says, you dont want to mess with 230/250 volts which judging by the sockets you have is what the UK uses.

Just because it might be little sparks and shocks you see now, the next one might be the big one that stops your heart.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:

Yup, exactly like that


Rebuild your computer from the motherboard on up and make sure all connections are hooked up properly and that there is nothing touching the motherboard underneath like say a small trapped screw thats causing the short.

Once you have checked out your pc thoroughly and if its still doing it then try it on a different monitor since you said you were having sparks come out of the hdmi cable when you disconnected it from the gpu, it was probably still connected to the monitor and the monitor probably still powered on at the time ? so to rule that out try another one.

Basically at this moment in time everything inside your pc is suspect.

Take it apart and make sure the mobo is seated properly and nothing from the case is touching it except the screws that hold down the motherboard into the brass stand offs.

And just disconnect your audio cable from the back of the pc, no need to do shit with it except unplug it.

As mentioned before, you keep messing about with it sooner or later you wont have a working pc to mess with.

If you can, download the motherboard manual and that will tell you everything you need to know about removing and refitting the motherboard, if you havent already got a paper copy.

Go slow, be thorough and double check and triple check everything and you wont go wrong.

If you feel its still too hard for you to do then take it to someone and get them to do it instead.

If it works ok with them but then starts playing up when you get it back then it points to either your power socket or anything thats connected to it or something thats connected to the pc, whether thats the monitor, speakers, modem, usb etc, anything that connects can cause problems especially when electricity is involved.

Click to expand...

Alright i will do it later tonight, will do all the suggestions. As we are progressing I am reading so many issues about the Corsair AX 760 and 760i and how shit it is when time has passed at what's even more worse is their RMA culture..my funds are now scared.
I am starting to think the culprit is my PSU cause this morning when I woke up I pushed the power button once it booted up, so I shut it down. I was so happy like a kid on cloud 9. Then comes the second attempt to turn it on, dang it, no response from the power button on the front side of the case, flipped the switch of PSU once from off till on and it booted up as if nothing happened. These symptoms are very indicative of PSU problems as per what I read on Corsair AX760 issues.

jcagara08 said:

your baffled with my topic or with the replies? LOL I really don't know the state of my PC now

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michalrz said:

You know, it's all fun and games but you need to realise that you can still get seriously hurt even though it's "just" a PC. If some piece of wire is loose inside the PSU and it comes in contact with the case, the case itself may become "live". Remember that you're dealing with 230 volts here. If you are unsure about things being grounded, always tap a metal surface first, preferably with a knuckle, never grab any edges with your hand or your muscles will contract and "glue" you for a second to the electric surface.

You seem to be going about this in a slightly chaotic way. Let me do a check-list for you which summarizes some of the suggestions people have put forth:
1. bypass your power strip and connect your PC and your monitor/TV directly to "the wall".
2. the metal bracket of the GPU is supposed to touch the case. However, I have seen instances where the bracket was touching the left edge of the motherboard. Now, it should not touch the MOBO, but it should touch the case.
3. disconnect any USB, audio and other devices that you don't need that much
4. report back in a day or two when you are sure the problem persists or not

Click to expand...

Yes sirree bob will do all this, the spark can only be induced previously with the cables that I was using when I touch it against the GPU pcie bracket, last night I threw them all out. Last night I was touching the PC it does not zap me at all

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:

as micharlz says, you dont want to mess with 230/250 volts which judging by the sockets you have is what the UK uses.

Just because it might be little sparks and shocks you see now, the next one might be the big one that stops your heart.

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yep I myself is a scardy cat when it comes to electricity and wiring shit

Even if your power supply did have a problem, which I dont know if it does or doesnt, but even if it did, it should not be causing you to see sparks on the case if everything was correctly wired up and seated.

Now, the sparks could of just been because when you unplugged the hdmi cable from the back of your computer, the hdmi cable was in all probability still connected to your monitor and probably your monitor was not powered off at the wall thus there was still electricty going through the hdmi cable and when you touched it to the back of the pc case it sparked.

Ive seen that myself, forgot that my ps4 was still powered on at the wall but the ps turned off and when I went to plug the hdmi cable into the tv I noticed a tiny spark, as tiny as it could get before not being noticeable by the human eye.

So I wonder if that was just the cause in your case also, or if there is some short, which it does sound like you have one, but since its happening alot I would expect the pc to shutdown or crash every now and then also.

If you genuinely dont know how to rebuild the thing, take it to a friend or a shop who can, it really is better to be safe than sorry.

Have you ever got a shock off the case when touching it ? or was it just the once that you saw sparks when you touched the hdmi cable against it ?

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:

Even if your power supply did have a problem, which I dont know if it does or doesnt, but even if it did, it should not be causing you to see sparks on the case if everything was correctly wired up and seated.

Now, the sparks could of just been because when you unplugged the hdmi cable from the back of your computer, the hdmi cable was in all probability still connected to your monitor and probably your monitor was not powered off at the wall thus there was still electricty going through the hdmi cable and when you touched it to the back of the pc case it sparked.

Ive seen that myself, forgot that my ps4 was still powered on at the wall but the ps turned off and when I went to plug the hdmi cable into the tv I noticed a tiny spark, as tiny as it could get before not being noticeable by the human eye.

So I wonder if that was just the cause in your case also, or if there is some short, which it does sound like you have one, but since its happening alot I would expect the pc to shutdown or crash every now and then also.

If you genuinely dont know how to rebuild the thing, take it to a friend or a shop who can, it really is better to be safe than sorry.

Have you ever got a shock off the case when touching it ? or was it just the once that you saw sparks when you touched the hdmi cable against it ?

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I was hoping someone would post this

Yes, if I understand you correctly, the spark could have simply been equalization of potentials between the monitor's shield (which in turn is connected to the HDMI shielding) and the PC case.
It's a spark because the contact point was tiny and the voltage was (in all probability) quite high.
However, and this is where I am not 100% sure, if he even had turned off his monitor, pulled the power cord, then it could have still sparked (when HDMI touched the GPU bracket) because of leftover charge in the TV's capacitors and static charge. Right?
Both events are not pretty but should be benign.
Now, as EVIL said, if you get an unpleasant constant "burrrrr" sensation or zaps every time you touch your PC case, that means there is leakage from the PC's components onto the case, which should not happen, as the case is grounded via the yellow-green safety wire, (again, I may be wrong, verifying).
BTW, jcagara08, how is your audio? Do you get any hum or buzzing in your speakers?

With his monitor turned off and unplugged, it could probably still produce a very small spark but I would think that would have to be within a few seconds of unplugging it and then immediately touching the cable to the case, before it has time to dissipate.

The size of spark I saw was extremely small and I would think you would have to be very quick in turning off and unplugging the monitor, unplugging the hdmi cable and then touching it to the back of the pc for it to spark, i.e superman quick, I would say in all probability it wouldnt.

But to be honest I dont really know, theoretically its possible but how common would it be in real life and how long does it take for the charge to dissipate I couldnt tell ya, all I know is I have seen it happen to me with an hdmi cable but that was when the device was powered but physically turned off, same as a monitor would be in standby mode.

EVIL-SCOTSMAN said:

Even if your power supply did have a problem, which I dont know if it does or doesnt, but even if it did, it should not be causing you to see sparks on the case if everything was correctly wired up and seated.

Now, the sparks could of just been because when you unplugged the hdmi cable from the back of your computer, the hdmi cable was in all probability still connected to your monitor and probably your monitor was not powered off at the wall thus there was still electricty going through the hdmi cable and when you touched it to the back of the pc case it sparked.

Ive seen that myself, forgot that my ps4 was still powered on at the wall but the ps turned off and when I went to plug the hdmi cable into the tv I noticed a tiny spark, as tiny as it could get before not being noticeable by the human eye.

So I wonder if that was just the cause in your case also, or if there is some short, which it does sound like you have one, but since its happening alot I would expect the pc to shutdown or crash every now and then also.

If you genuinely dont know how to rebuild the thing, take it to a friend or a shop who can, it really is better to be safe than sorry.

Have you ever got a shock off the case when touching it ? or was it just the once that you saw sparks when you touched the hdmi cable against it ?

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first off I built this PC myself so yes I do know how to rebuild it from scratch I just don't have the theoretical level understanding of how electricity works like you guys are nerding out on my thread. As I have previously mentioned I saw the spark from ocntacting both metals since PSU was turned on and Monitor as well with the intent to boot the pc via that weird way but now I won't risk it now that I replaced all the cables. I was zapped during those times when I accidentally touched the backside of the case when attempting to turn it on, also when I laid the case down and accidentally touched the bare metal of topside of the case it zapped me also.. I wish that my experience this morning to boot the pc the 2nd time anx failed and had to switch the PSU on and off just to get it to turn on was just an isolated case, otherwise I would like to rest my mind that issues have been eliminated.

michalrz said:

I was hoping someone would post this

Yes, if I understand you correctly, the spark could have simply been equalization of potentials between the monitor's shield (which in turn is connected to the HDMI shielding) and the PC case.
It's a spark because the contact point was tiny and the voltage was (in all probability) quite high.
However, and this is where I am not 100% sure, if he even had turned off his monitor, pulled the power cord, then it could have still sparked (when HDMI touched the GPU bracket) because of leftover charge in the TV's capacitors and static charge. Right?
Both events are not pretty but should be benign.
Now, as EVIL said, if you get an unpleasant constant "burrrrr" sensation or zaps every time you touch your PC case, that means there is leakage from the PC's components onto the case, which should not happen, as the case is grounded via the yellow-green safety wire, (again, I may be wrong, verifying).
BTW, jcagara08, how is your audio? Do you get any hum or buzzing in your speakers?

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-your so geeked out on electricity don't understand the jargons.
-it all happened while PSU was on (grounded state maybe since it was not powering on the PC) and the monitor in standby mode also. zapped me twice and sparks from HDMI cable and GPU bracket contact which makes the PC turn on!
-grounding I am not so sure of, I have to do some assessments. I have to find a way ro DIY grounding of my PC case, I can go as far as putting soil in a pot but don't know the particular secondary steps.
-I do get that weird sound when I touch the 3.5mm audio jack at the backside of the PC, I suspect the normal disconnection sound which we experience always.

well what do you know the PC is still on!
Maybe I don't have to turn this off for a couple of days? I will be buried in my take home work tonight till tomorrow jeebus

First off I built this PC myself so yes I do know how to rebuild it from scratch

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Okay, that would actually help a lot! But, please take into consideration the following bits and pieces of info:
- on the motherboard, take a look at the screw holes (no pun intended). Can you see little solder pads circling the edges of the holes? They are there to, among other things, protect the MOBO as you twist the screws down. So, you need to be reeealy careful, you don't need to use much force at all. Don't scratch the motherboard's laminate (the plastic)
- always count how many brass stand-offs you had placed on the case's motherboard tray. So, later, when you (very carefully!) place the motherboard on the standoffs (inside the case), make double triple sure you didn't leave any stand-off unchecked. Amount of screws needs to equal the number of standoffs, to put it simply
- after you seat the wires in, such as the motherboard's ATX power connector (wide, two rows), lightly push the wire bundle itself in (press down), to make sure all the wires reach their respective connector pins
- if you are not planning to use the front panel audio jacks, or front panel USB, simply don't connect them to the motherboard - one less potential point of failure. You can even leave the LED lights not connected for troubleshooting
- the back panel of the case - the so called IO shield that came with the motherboard has these blades , see image - I've circled them in red:

you need to be extra careful so that they don't bend the wrong way and accidentally enter (obstruct) the inside of the motherboard's connectors.
- make sure all of your motherboard brass standoffs are level and equal length. You don't want your board to flex after you screw it down.
- carefully inspect all the wires' insulation - maybe you simply made an accidental incision and some wires became exposed and create short-circuits somewhere
- you probably don't need any excessive force to install anything for your PC. If something doesn't want to fit, don't force it. Everything should simply snuggly fit.
- since you have a GPU related problem or so it seems, make sure your card is inserted properly into the PCIe port and that, for example, there are no visible gold contacts sticking out on either the left or right side. The metal bracket with ports cannot touch the side of the motherboard. It can and should touch the case.

-grounding I am not so sure of, I have to do some assessments. I have to find a way ro DIY grounding of my PC case, I can go as far as putting soil in a pot but don't know the particular secondary steps.

Click to expand...

Grounding is a surprisingly difficult and often misunderstood subject, whether it's a PC or a fridge. I think it would be most useful, if you bought of borrowed a power strip that has a "ground ok" LED light. There should be an Earth ground symbol near the LED, which looks like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe.../Earth_Ground.svg/2000px-Earth_Ground.svg.png It's the safest way to check if your wall sockets are properly setup. If not, only a qualified electrician should attempt to remedy the problem.

-I do get that weird sound when I touch the 3.5mm audio jack at the backside of the PC, I suspect the normal disconnection sound which we experience always.

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Interesting. So, it makes noises even when you just touch the plug? without wiggling it around?

michalrz said:

Okay, that would actually help a lot! But, please take into consideration the following bits and pieces of info:
- on the motherboard, take a look at the screw holes (no pun intended). Can you see little solder pads circling the edges of the holes? They are there to, among other things, protect the MOBO as you twist the screws down. So, you need to be reeealy careful, you don't need to use much force at all. Don't scratch the motherboard's laminate (the plastic)
- always count how many brass stand-offs you had placed on the case's motherboard tray. So, later, when you (very carefully!) place the motherboard on the standoffs (inside the case), make double triple sure you didn't leave any stand-off unchecked. Amount of screws needs to equal the number of standoffs, to put it simply
- after you seat the wires in, such as the motherboard's ATX power connector (wide, two rows), lightly push the wire bundle itself in (press down), to make sure all the wires reach their respective connector pins
- if you are not planning to use the front panel audio jacks, or front panel USB, simply don't connect them to the motherboard - one less potential point of failure. You can even leave the LED lights not connected for troubleshooting
- the back panel of the case - the so called IO shield that came with the motherboard has these blades , see image - I've circled them in red:



you need to be extra careful so that they don't bend the wrong way and accidentally enter (obstruct) the inside of the motherboard's connectors.
- make sure all of your motherboard brass standoffs are level and equal length. You don't want your board to flex after you screw it down.
- carefully inspect all the wires' insulation - maybe you simply made an accidental incision and some wires became exposed and create short-circuits somewhere
- you probably don't need any excessive force to install anything for your PC. If something doesn't want to fit, don't force it. Everything should simply snuggly fit.
- since you have a GPU related problem or so it seems, make sure your card is inserted properly into the PCIe port and that, for example, there are no visible gold contacts sticking out on either the left or right side. The metal bracket with ports cannot touch the side of the motherboard. It can and should touch the case.

Grounding is a surprisingly difficult and often misunderstood subject, whether it's a PC or a fridge. I think it would be most useful, if you bought of borrowed a power strip that has a "ground ok" LED light. There should be an Earth ground symbol near the LED, which looks like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe.../Earth_Ground.svg/2000px-Earth_Ground.svg.png It's the safest way to check if your wall sockets are properly setup. If not, only a qualified electrician should attempt to remedy the problem.

Interesting. So, it makes noises even when you just touch the plug? without wiggling it around?

Click to expand...

-yes I see those I think I may have screwed them a little bit hard the first time I installed it cause I saw some part of it being lightly chipped, for sure did not scratch the laminate.
-brass stand offs = mobo screws yes they're all equal.
-umh for me the front I/O is important so I have to leave them connected.
-oh yes the IO shield I have to see if its bent in the wrong way but I guess not, I should see it
-mobo standoffs are by far all equal
-yes I need to see the wires but the PSU cables are semi braided?
-Yes force is something subjective I may have to reconsider my building manner but hey the mobo is made out of silicon right so I pressume it can adapt to pressure?
-GPU problem maybe its not the case for me, I did put some electrical tape on the PCIe bracket of my case where the paint has chipped off when I attempted to bend/break that extra steel blocking the HDMI port of the GPU but alas, bought a DVI-D to HDMI adapter so thats finished.
-my Power strip has a yellow green and a red light which the latter means as per the manual bad home grounding of some sort. I am too much paranoid about grounding now, it seems that my room is properly grounded I guess.
-The sound is from wiggling the jack going in and outside the speaker port at the back, its normal right?

jcagara08 said:

-yes I see those I think I may have screwed them a little bit hard the first time I installed it cause I saw some part of it being lightly chipped, for sure did not scratch the laminate.

Click to expand...

Hmm, chipped you say. Tell ya what, next time you'll be rebuilding your system, take a nice macro-style photo of this defect. It may or may not mean something...

-yes I need to see the wires but the PSU cables are semi braided?

Click to expand...

Oh, in that case, simply try to grab the bundle as close to the plug as possible, and lightly press it down while rotating it. Point is, sometimes a single wire in the plug can recess a bit and fails to make contact, even though the plastic casing of both the plug and socket seem correctly aligned.

-my Power strip has a yellow green and a red light which the latter means as per the manual bad home grounding of some sort. I am too much paranoid about grounding now, it seems that my room is properly grounded I guess.

Click to expand...

Oh, good to hear then. A side note - it's always good to have all your system components (printer, monitor, PC) connected to the same strip or at least the same socket.

-The sound is from wiggling the jack going in and outside the speaker port at the back, its normal right?

Click to expand...

Oh, yeah, that's probably normal. I thought it made a buzz simply by touching. No issue then.

So, all in all, not much else I can think of :<

michalrz said:

Hmm, chipped you say. Tell ya what, next time you'll be rebuilding your system, take a nice macro-style photo of this defect. It may or may not mean something...


Oh, in that case, simply try to grab the bundle as close to the plug as possible, and lightly press it down while rotating it. Point is, sometimes a single wire in the plug can recess a bit and fails to make contact, even though the plastic casing of both the plug and socket seem correctly aligned.

Oh, good to hear then. A side note - it's always good to have all your system components (printer, monitor, PC) connected to the same strip or at least the same socket.


Oh, yeah, that's probably normal. I thought it made a buzz simply by touching. No issue then.

So, all in all, not much else I can think of :<

Click to expand...

I will take a macro style shot as soon as I will encounter this issue again, so far so good my pc is running normal and fine as of typing this so yeah I will try to reseat that 24 pin power connector soon as I have mentioned.

yes my printer and an Ikea floor lamp plus the speakers all in that new strip APC branded one.

Yes I guess when I try to disconnect and or plug the audio jack it'll make that normal sound.

Subscribing, this thread looks like fun

Ocellaris said:

Subscribing, this thread looks like fun

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Why, what's wrong? Judging by the OPs responses like putting his [H] balls on and doing soak tests and using soil to ground, he has a particular sense of humour.
When we suggest things he can do, he does address does suggestions albeit a bit chaocitally because he's lost in the terminology.
Everyone is invited to help, and yet the thread is turning to some sort of [C]ynic central. How come?