Ungrounded power line?

[Flatland]

I live in an old house, with fairly old wiring, so my room's outlets are 2-prong only with no ground. I just finished putting a new box together and had planned on installing it upstairs, using one of those cheap adapters that just kills the grounding wire... Is there any danger to running a computer without a ground?

I do have a decent line conditioner and a nice 430W Antec TruePower PSU, but the rig is pretty hi-end and is gonna be drawing a lot of current... I certainly don't want to risk damage to the PC.

 

[Ice Czar]

Id make a dedicated ground for it

some info is in the FAQ
Installing Isolated Ground plugs

in this case isolation isnt an issue

 

[wayne]

OR (i dunno if its possible but from the looks of the ones i have, yes)... take the those plug that kills the grounding line... most of them should have another lil round metal clip for the ground... solder a thick wire and lead it outside, solder to a huge copper pipe, and bury it deep into the ground

just an idea, please correct me

 

[mikeblas]

and bury it deep into the ground

just an idea, please correct me

You can tie it to a water pipe, or bury an iron rod. No need to use a copper pipe.

Wayne, you should get advice from a pro about this. You seem to be concerned with protecting the machine, but you also need to protect yourself, your mom, and your home.

If you insist on doing it yourself, you'll want to get a copy of the National Electric Code and read section 250.

.B ekiM

 

[nam-ng]

I live in an old house, with fairly old wiring, so my room's outlets are 2-prong only with no ground. I just finished putting a new box together and had planned on installing it upstairs, using one of those cheap adapters that just kills the grounding wire... Is there any danger to running a computer without a ground?

I do have a decent line conditioner and a nice 430W Antec TruePower PSU, but the rig is pretty hi-end and is gonna be drawing a lot of current... I certainly don't want to risk damage to the PC.

That ground was created for people not hardware. There's ground and then there's ground, not all of them were intended for identical purpose.

 

[wayne]

You can tie it to a water pipe, or bury an iron rod. No need to use a copper pipe.

Wayne, you should get advice from a pro about this. You seem to be concerned with protecting the machine, but you also need to protect yourself, your mom, and your home.

If you insist on doing it yourself, you'll want to get a copy of the National Electric Code and read section 250.

.B ekiM

i m sorry if you misread or anything... but i am not the original poster of this thread.. the original poster is Flatland who has the situation, not me... i just put in my two cents

i have no purpose to do anything of the likes for a while because my current house is properly grounded.... so yea, Flatland, take mikeblas's advice

 

[tdg]

With the line conditioner, you'll should be OK with the two wire system, but I would suggest installing a GFCI outlet in place of the old one, it'll give you a little more protection from a short and eliminate having to use the adapters, as they are not a good idea to use by any means. If you're really concerned have an electrician evaluate your wiring, it's not something that you should take much advice from non-qualified people on a forum

 

[ThreeDee]

my wife and I bought an older home and have been slowly remodeling it and upgrading wiring and insulation and what not ... turned one room into a computer room and put in a ground rod outside of room and then ran ground wires to it from outlets in room ..that was one of our first projects ..

now we have upgraded to 200amp service and tide ground from new box to that grounding rod and 2 others to ground whole house.

that in conjunction with my IBM UPS ..and no worries on computer parts no matter how ugly the weather gets ....