Static Electricity Issue - Second KIA Sound Card, Dry Room

veritas7

Gawd
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Messages
736
Hey HardOCP,

Long story short, I had a second audio card die on me lately. I think the culprit is accidental exposure to small static discharges when I pick up my headphones in my residence.

I now live in a state that is very dry in humidity so I gather static all the time in my place.

This is the second time I've replaced my soundcard in my old PC. I'm now going to redo a build and luckily had a third soundcard spare replacement for this new build anyway, but I've killed two Creative soundcards thus far, both having the same symptom of high pitch whine in the left channel (and gets worse with mouse movement, but still is present even with no mouse, and launching videogames makes the left channel totally whine in a really insanely loud high pitch) after I realized they've been compromised; moving PCI slots does nothing. One was an X-Fi on PCI-e; the other that JUST died, and still didn't work in another slot as well, was a PCI X-TremeGamer (OEM) card I got off eBay years ago as well.

I'm wondering, what the heck can I do to prevent sound card and computer damage when I want to use my PC?
  • Should I get a humidifier?
  • Should I somehow setup some sort of grounding system between my headphones and my soundcard?
  • Should I somehow ground my PCI-brackets to something with wire?
  • How do I easily ground, what is some easy wire to pick up from the hardware store for this type of thing, and what conductive end materials to clamp/help ground?

Pardon my post; I'm under huge anxiety to do a midnight build and also that I'm deeply dependent on my audio capabilities for my well-being (music really soothes my person). I really don't want to keep buying sound cards or possibly damage my motherboard(s) from now on.
 
Soundcard should be grounded to the case via the plate that covers the PCI slot (with all the audio jacks on it), unless something is preventing a good ground. If it's caused by a discharge when you pick up your headphones, then I'd recommend touching something else that's grounded before grabbing your headphones--there's not really much else you can do, since your headphones are a direct line to the internal electronics of your soundcard.

A humidifier is another option, but I couldn't tell you whether it's the best option or not. I'd say better safe than sorry and just discharge on something else if you can. Think of whatever you touch without thinking, and that annoying shock it gives you, that's probably your best bet--even if you don't get that shock, you'll still discharge whatever little charge you have built up.
 
Soundcard should be grounded to the case via the plate that covers the PCI slot (with all the audio jacks on it), unless something is preventing a good ground. If it's caused by a discharge when you pick up your headphones, then I'd recommend touching something else that's grounded before grabbing your headphones--there's not really much else you can do, since your headphones are a direct line to the internal electronics of your soundcard.

A humidifier is another option, but I couldn't tell you whether it's the best option or not. I'd say better safe than sorry and just discharge on something else if you can. Think of whatever you touch without thinking, and that annoying shock it gives you, that's probably your best bet--even if you don't get that shock, you'll still discharge whatever little charge you have built up.

Do you think I'm kind of shit out of luck then at attempting to migrate this issue at all? Perhaps go to an external sound source? I wish I really brought with me an old Sony (tv receiver I was contemplating using as an amp/possibly DAC from optical out of my sound card since the analog ports were blown (at least the Front L/R slash Headphone port) but I left it back in storage in another state (I moved 6 months ago from the midwest to CO).

Would also possibly a plastic mat underneath my chair help at all?

How my audio system from my Head to outlet looks like:

a) Headphones are HD 595s from Senn, hooked up to dual mic+headphone extension cord that lets me easily wrap the cord around my desk, directly to the 3.5mm port on the Soundcard.
b) I run a UPS (1500W?) by CyberPower that I've had since 2009. Rarely has it kicked in, maybe a few times when I browned out in my old place. I now own my own condo; I have no experienced any brownouts or any other electrical outage issue.
c) Through that UPS, I run two metal power strips, one that is Surge only (Monitors, power for hotswap dock, etc) and the other Strip runs my PC (~800W PSU in both PCs I have, the one that is 'broken' and the other that Im 'remaking' due to this issue), the modem and the router.
d) My case is an old Lian Li - its purely aluminum everywhere except for its feet, which are also alumninum, but at the moment I have rubber slippers over them to reduce vibration on a separate desk (the desk is in no way then grounded, since its wooden on top)
Headphones = > extension 3.5mm (f->m) => Soundcard (Chasis) => DC cord => Strip => UPS => Wall Outlet
 
If your PSU is attached to your case, it should share a common ground. Since it's aluminum, if you touch it then you should be at the same potential as your case, which is at the same potential as your PSU, and so you should not have to worry about damaging your soundcard, because it's powered by your motherboard, which gets its power from the PSU. What we're trying to do is reduce the distance to ground, and eliminate as many sensitive components in the path as possible:

Ground<-PSU<-Motherboard<-Soundcard<-Headphones<-You
Ground<-PSU<-Case<-You

If your home's wiring is good, your PSU is put together properly, and there's nothing to prevent the charge from going to the PSU through the case, you should be fine after touching the case. There is a slight chance that there is less resistance if the discharged electricity goes through your components instead of going directly to the PSU, but I'd say that's rather unlikely (unless you have non-conductive painted case, PSU, and screws).

If you want to be absolutely sure, I guess you could get a wire that goes to an unpainted screw somewhere on your case, or get a grounded ESD mat/strap and touch that first before touching your headphones. And like I said, the humidifier is an option, just don't know how effective it'll be.
 
My PSU is securely/screwed in to my case, and what's funny is that the screws on the (old haunted, static prone) PC are not painted. I know my case should be grounded, I know my PSU is attached to my case, and my case is anondized aluminum with plenty of exposed nonpainted interior (to be specific, its a Lian Li V2000B). Why I somehow shorted out TWO soundcards over the past 6 months is killing me. It either has to be the PSU, mobo, or static electricity. The first time the first soundcard died, it was definitely static electricity - it was my fault, on accident, when I was attempting to repair/see the damange done by a loose headphone driver/magnet (ended up having a damaged membrane so I had to throw it out).

I will definitely be buying a humidifier for nights and also buying an ESD mat/strap, because pardon my french, fuck this ever happening to again, I don't want to ruin my soundcards, and I should probably invest in an amp or external DAC in the future possibly as well (but I game so I've enjoyed my Auzen/X-Fis).

And for the last thing, what do you mean "get a wire that goes to an unpainted screw" - where should I attach it? Buy a cheap 3 prong adapter and wire it to the ground?
Do you suggest moving also my PC from PSU=>Metal Power Strip=>UPS (CyberPower company)=>Outlet(ground) to PC=>Wall outlet? I now live in a condo, I don't have to worry about 1970s apartment wiring as my building was done in 88.
Other info: Corsair TX860 (old pc), Corsair AX760 (new pc Im moving only basically hard drives to from old PC)
 
I mean a screw on your case. If you touch your case (or a wire connected to your case), you shouldn't have to worry about discharging to your headphones since you will have already discharged to the case (which is connected to ground). The reason this is different than discharging to your headphones is that your headphones are wired directly to the internal circuits of your soundcard, whereas if you touch your case the charge is more likely to travel to ground than any of your components (motherboard, soundcard, gpu, etc.).

Once the charge is gone (how ever you get rid of it) you have nothing to worry about, because your headphones are connected to your PC, which is itself grounded, so you should have the same electrical potential (equal charge=no reason for electricity to travel).

It would be the same as touching the (grounded) ESD mat, because both your PC and the mat have a common ground, which has the same electrical potential.
 
What would you suggest as my grounding habit then? Get an ESD mat? Connect that mat to my case then by wire and a screw? Make a habit of touching the mat before I touch the headphones?

I'm open all ears on any solution. I'm already set on getting a humidifier - I already have dry skin, this is another excuse for me to finally just go ahead and buy one so my electronics don't suffer either due to this extremely dry weather in CO, USA.
 
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