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Killed glados... Oops

Vaulter98c

Vaulter98c

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - October 2009
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May 21, 2008
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Posted via [H] Mobile Device

lol, didn't even post anything

anyways. I was getting on glados to do some quick gaming today. Ran into a problem tho...

I had joined a game of BC2 and noticed there was some dust on the screen. Took my hand off the keyboard and wiped it off but got the classic CRT shock. Well, when that happened my keyboard's lock lights all started flashing and I heard a few o the unplug / plug in noises windows makes. I try to alt tab out, nothing. Keyboard is unresponsive. My other hand was on the mouse when this happened, and the mouse didn't work either. The light was on but no one was home. The game was still running tho, just my USB devices stopped working. Shut off, restart, still nothing. Shut off, switch USB ports, restart, nothing. All of a sudden one time windows threw a USB device malfunction pop up, restart again to try my front jacks and now she won't get past the first screen on the bios (which had been turned off for over a year now). Clear CMOS, and I'm stuck atthe splash screen.

Um, WTF happened? Any ideas for a fix? Won't have PS2 keyboard and spare mouse until tomorrow
 
Last edited:
For those that don't know, glados is my game rig. My sig would explain it but I forgot the mobile app doesn't post sigs
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
wow never heard of that happening before.. ive done that plenty of times and never killed a mouse or keyboard that way..
 
as have I

You would think that couldn't happen, the shock can't be powerful enough to go through the plastic on the mouse and jump on the power line
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
This was not a triumph.

Did the USB controller die?
 
It's gotta be something with the mobo right?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Vaulter98c said:
For those that don't know, glados is my game rig. My sig would explain it but I forgot the mobile app doesn't post sigs
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

Unplug your monitor and computer completely for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

This will let all of the corrupted (shocked) memory deplete the power that is coursing through it.

I've done this same thing before, not enough to fry the comp, but enough to "paralyze" it.

Let me know if this works or not.

Oh, an make sure the PSU's master switch in the back is off as well. Let the power completely drain from the system before plugging it back in again.
 
I've blown memory with static shock through my mouse once, it was weird. Needless to say I'm extra careful now and I really hate static shock.
 
Holy shit that worked. I figured since it was still booting and showing a screen that wouldn't do anything

how the hell did that happen?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Vaulter98c said:
Holy shit that worked. I figured since it was still booting and showing a screen that wouldn't do anything

how the hell did that happen?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
Click to expand...

haha, I've had this happen on a bunch of comps lately. For some reason if a static shock is delivered to the system, it corrupts the memory (on all parts of the system) making it unbootable. This is present for both PCs and Macs as I've seen it happen on both.

Unplugging the system lets all of the power drain from the system, thus clearing the corrupted memory.

Apparently the shock isn't enough to fry the system, but it is enough to shock it into submission.

Kind of a weird thing as I've only seen it happen on computers/macs built after 2008, it doesn't happen on systems with parts from 2007 or earlier.

I'm glad it worked for you. :)
 
But how did it get into the system? The mouse?
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
If your body generates a static electricity, just touching the metal case, the screen, clicking the mouse, or pressing a button on the keyboard is enough to do it. However, it has to be a strong static build up to bypass the glass/plastic/etc in order to paralyze the memory into a corrupt state.

Like I said, I've only seen it on systems built in the last 2 years. Systems built in 2007 or early seem to have little to no effect by it. IMO, it has to do with more intricate, less durable circuitry that is more susceptible to static shock that is present in recent systems and parts.

But again, this is just my opinion based on events that I personally have experienced. As time goes on however, I've been seeing it happen much more frequently, but it never happens to older systems, even if the bare parts are touched with the shock.
 
I killed the family computer as a kid. Looking back, must not have been grounded properly.

I shocked the little metal key on the front of the beige box. Instant beeeeeeeep. it was dead, Jim.

Dad was pissed, but I was happy because we upgraded from a Pentium to a Pentium II. It was awesome :)
 
I'm just still in shock, the charge had to pass through the mouse right? I wasn't clicking, and the components inside the mouse arent exactly accesable. I can't believe thats what happened, I've been in that scenario hundreds of times, never once did that tho. That just blows my mind.

I was really worried when my keyboard lights started dancing, thats never a good sign.
 
USB ports are protected against short-circuit. My best guess is a grounding issue.
 
Yup, did it myself over the last year, everything is to code and just a week or two ago I cleaned up the connection between the house's earth ground line and it's connection so I know it's good
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
Well, then you might just be unlucky to have a bad static shock. Sometime, electricity behave weirdly.
 
Maybe through the video input? If that's where you felt it, that's probably the entry point...
O ninja cat/aardvarks...
 
Sounds like you need the ASSP (Aperture Science Static Protector). For science...you monster. :D
 
Touching the metal of the case (ideally the power supply case) is a good way to drain off those extra volts. The power supply is grounded to earth ground through the wall outlet.

As far as shocking the mouse and having that shock hit the USB controller and crash the computer I can see that happening especially since your finger isn't that far from the microswitches. Once it hits the USB controller it has to find a path to ground which is going to play havoc with the system. The best bet would be for the surge to go down the power return line on the USB hence avoiding the controller but we don't get to choose where static electricity goes.

I like cases where the button you push is a couple of inches long and pushed the real button buried in the metal of the case so that any surge on you has a much larger gap to jump to the actual power switch. I usually touch the metal on my case as I walk in to sit down. Provided that metal is well grounded to the power supply you shouldn't be able to fry a PC by touching the metal case.

Any surge that you can feel (and many that you can't feel) can be fatal to computer parts. Through the mouse is a strange path but the mouse doesn't have a ground wire of its own so if the charge jumps to a conductive part of the mouse you could have problems.

You might want to buy a different mouse that has a better design as that really shouldn't happen.

Also any time I am working on computers at home I take my shoes off to help lower the speed at which I build up a charge.
 
nwrtarget said:
Also any time I am working on computers at home I take my shoes off to help lower the speed at which I build up a charge.
Click to expand...

I've also heard you should take your clothes off around computers to avoid static electricity.

 
Well certainly ditch the synthetic fabrics and stick to cotton.

In other words I don't want to think of you being naked while you are tweaking your latest SR 2. Just tell me you are wearing cotton. Oh and you wouldn't want to get some part of your body caught in that powerful fan of yours.
 
Too many moving parts on my SR2 to work on naked. Especially since I got my AR15 on the wall right beside it, If I look over and start to think of shooting I may have to stop thinking about kids someday

I've got that nice logitech gamer mouse, been running those since they came out, and back in the day when I had a HUGE ass CRT for 3D gaming I always got shocked but never had this issue.

Just so odd
 
With a quick glance I saw girl+computers and instantly thought Ed from Bebop but of course that's not the answer. God I miss that show....why couldn't they have made more episodes. :(
On pic info it says "lain" so I'm assuming it's Serial Experiments Lain. I'm so far behind on anime...I'm still living in the Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura / Ranma 1/2) days.
 
zero2dash said:
With a quick glance I saw girl+computers and instantly thought Ed from Bebop but of course that's not the answer. God I miss that show....why couldn't they have made more episodes. :(
On pic info it says "lain" so I'm assuming it's Serial Experiments Lain. I'm so far behind on anime...I'm still living in the Rumiko Takahashi (Urusei Yatsura / Ranma 1/2) days.
Click to expand...

They did make a Cowboy Bebop movie in 2004, it was really good!

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.

Haha, Ranma ftw! :D
 
:D
I was living in Japan when Serial Experiments Lain and Cowboy Bebop aired on TV. The bit about Lain building computers in her underwear "to prevent static electricity" got stuck in my brain.
 
Red Falcon said:
Unplug your monitor and computer completely for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

This will let all of the corrupted (shocked) memory deplete the power that is coursing through it.

I've done this same thing before, not enough to fry the comp, but enough to "paralyze" it.

Let me know if this works or not.

Oh, an make sure the PSU's master switch in the back is off as well. Let the power completely drain from the system before plugging it back in again.
Click to expand...


hey just wanted to say thanks on behalf of Caddishhttp://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036308350 your fix also worked for him as well but for a totally different problem..
 
Wow man, i'm sorry to hear about this as this is definately the first time i've heard of it.

This actually makes me a bit worried because none of the outlets in my house have a ground. For everything in my house, I have it hooked into my outlet using a 3 to 2 prong adapter. Both my folding rigs are plugged into a surge protector, which is plugged into a 3 to 2 prong adapter and then plugged into the wall outlet.
 
If you run a wire from the tab on the 3 to 2 prong adapters to a true earth ground then you would be safe.

Due to floating grounds and the fact that we use ethernet for data it would be best if you ran them all to the same ground point or at least a point with the same potential but it just needs to be close in potential to avoid your ground path being through the ethernet cable. Datacenters spend a a fair amount of time worrying about how good their earth grounds are so they don't fry stuff or catch Cat 5 wire on fire... Oh and one of the big reasons for having the earth ground at all is to avoid having the whole rig (datacenter racks and equipment electrified) to avoid having the point to ground being the human who happens to touch the equipment. So with an earth ground if the short to the metal is big enough it will pop the breaker or smoke the wire, without it will probably just kill the next poor soul who touches it.
 
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