OMG *starts crying*

S

shadowbreaker513

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
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I got an Aspire X-Qpack case, msi mATX mobo (forget the exact name), and a zalman 7000b cpu cooler for my birthday. I had it working and was putting everything back in the case (after troubleshooting a problem) when the phone rang. I got up, and walked over to answer it. about 1/3 of the way between where I was building, my finger got close to the CD drive. ZAP! Just like that. The entire computer just got killed by ESD. I had been grounded the entire time, and at the time, the computer was grounded with everything plugged into the psu, the psu plugged into a surge protector, and the surge protector into the wall. Anybody know of anything I can do?

P.S. To make sure it wasn't the just the psu, I plugged in the aspire that came with it just into the motherboard. Still nothing. I press the power button and nothing happens.
 
should have been wearing the anti-static wristband and working in a non-carpeted room with 90% humidity on a antisatic mat buck naked, with no jewelry on. :p

That'll teach ya.

I've lost computers (work) to ESD before (luckily they weren't mine and I wasn't the person who zapped them, when I say "I've" I mean my department collectively).
 
I was wearing a wristband, but I had to take it off when I got up.

And holy crap I'm lucky. Just tried it again and it booted up fine. That's the second time this computer has come back from the dead (first time was when I drive 12v through a ground pin on a floppy)

And just to give an idea of how strong the shock was, I gave the shock with the middle finger on my right hand. On the middle finger on my left hand, the skin on the knucle tore and started bleeding.
 
did you have the phone in hand at the time? Is it a wireless or cabled? If it is cabled - there is where the surge came from -
I am just glad it came back.
 
No, this happened between getting up and getting the phone. I think it may have killed the IDE channels on the mobo, as no matter what I do, I can't get them to work..... :confused:
 
uhmmm dayamn... that sounds like some massive ESD... what u got? animal fur for carpet or something??
dang...
luckaly ive never fryed a part from ESD, cuz i dont use a wrist band or anything... i just use the case for grounding...
 
Contrary to popular belief, having a system connected to an outlet is not better, as the outlet's ground will be at a much lower potential than your body's at any time. It's sufficient to eliminate/reduce the potential between your body and the equipment you're working on by sharing the same ground plane (touching the unpainted metal of the case, for example). Your setup simply increased the possibility of an ESD.

Without more information I can't say in how far other factors might have contributed to this unfortunate event.

The PSU apparently triggered its thermal fuse. Since the ESD surge came from the inside of the system it apparently took out some of the mainboard's components as well. I doubt that there's much you can do at this point other than re-evaluate your handling methods of ESD-sensitive components.
 
I doubt that there's much you can do at this point other than re-evaluate your handling methods of ESD-sensitive components.
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1) I wasn't handling anything.
2) I was using an anti-static wrist strap the entire time
3) I never touched the cd-drive. It arced thru midair.

Anything else I could have done? No.
 
How in the hell............

It just started working perfectly fine and booting windows. I need a computer exorcist.
 
Send it to me....and if it doesn't work I will just toss it for you. :D
 
I'm on it now and it's fine. Hell, I didn't even need to repair reinstall Windows or reinstall chipset drivers (though I will).
 
shadowbreaker513 said:
I'm on it now and it's fine. Hell, I didn't even need to repair reinstall Windows or reinstall chipset drivers (though I will).
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I wouldn't. If it got knocked offline by electrical discharge, and came back up okay, it probably tripped a safety. If you'd had the BIOS set to automatically resume previous power state it probably would have just rebooted.

Really the bloody knuckles thing sounds more like it took its tax of blood for the build, torn knuckles is more of a physical contact thing. Computers do that. Pretty much every time I'm building the rig for myself, blood gets drawn. That or if I'm changing an AT power supply...but that's a different story, stupid rusted stuck contacts in tight spaces and sharp edged cases. I <3 ATX.
 
Well all seems well with the computer and I'm on it right now. Fri 13 was always a lucky day for me. My GPU is running cooler and I think my cpu is. This MSI reads a bit high, but a temp probe stuck into the bottom of the fins on the heatsink reads 28C, which I'm estimating to be around 35C - 38C actual temp. It's also a LOT quieter now.
 
shadowbreaker513 said:
1) I wasn't handling anything.
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I was talking about the way you had everything set up while you were working on the system's internals.
2) I was using an anti-static wrist strap the entire time
3) I never touched the cd-drive. It arced thru midair.
Click to expand...
Because the outlet's ground is at a very low potential (thanks to the sheer size of the earth ;) ), the moment you took off the wrist strap and moved your feet on the floor, your body's potential probably rose at a nearly exponential rate compared to the case's. This is proven by the arc of electricity you observed. Every cm of air requires N Volts to overcome this distance.
 
Calis said:
lucky
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Heh, definatly. Especially since this is the second time I've shocked the system to a temporary death. (first time I plugged in floppy connector wrong. 12v through the ground pin)
 
This is why I always pull out the power cord and equalize on the bare case before working inside. Once, I shocked my JOYSTICK while the machine was ON, and thereby killed my game port on the AT286@12mhz. Case was closed, hands were dry, no carpet in the room, just ZAP! fried the game port, and nothing else.

ESD can sneak up on you.
 
The ESD may not have even killed the computer to begin with.

I put together a box once, and got absolutely nothing on boot. The fans turned on, everything got power, but no boot-like things occurred.

I checked the cables, memory, CPU; everything was connected properly. I was stumped. Everything should have been working fine. So, being out of options for the moment, I told the computer this. I pointed out, "Look, everything is connected. You should be booting up fine. There's no reason for this."

Next attempt, it's up like a finely tuned machine. See, with computers getting to be as smart as we are, they sometimes, much like us, decide that working is for chumps. You just have to be stern with them and show them who's really in charge.
 
I think you're trying too hard to avoid ESD and Murphy's Law is kicking in.

I bet if you never took any precautions, everything would be fine. That's how things work for me, anyways.
 
Badger said:
I think you're trying too hard to avoid ESD and Murphy's Law is kicking in.

I bet if you never took any precautions, everything would be fine. That's how things work for me, anyways.
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Yup, in all the computers I've built never lost one to ESD
 
shadowbreaker513 said:
Heh, definatly. Especially since this is the second time I've shocked the system to a temporary death. (first time I plugged in floppy connector wrong. 12v through the ground pin)
Click to expand...

heh, im just happy for you getting it working again

[/bad english - need sleep]

sif
 
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