shocking pc?

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iron man

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whenever my friend comes over for a lan he sets his pc up and when he plugs it into one of the power ports, his pc box and sometimes his keyboard becomes live and everytime we touch it it shocks us. anyone had this issues before?

im asking this now because when my new pc parts come, i am going to build it and plug it in there and if its a problem with the plug, i dont want it damaging my system. anyone had and issue like this?
 
many moons ago we had a similar issue at a small lan we had at a mates house, test it on another socket to see if it does the same thing, if it is the socket itself you'll probably find its not grounded properly. if its the PC im clueless, the only thing i can think is that the PSU is faulty
 
I assume your friend doesn't have this issue when it's plugged in at his place?

You can get an earth leakage tester to check the plug, the simpler ones are not that expensive. Tests earth (wether it can trip the earth leakage) and polarity.
 
As someone also mentioned above...

This problem usually means the PC isn't grounded properly
 
Drake2007 said:
I assume your friend doesn't have this issue when it's plugged in at his place?

You can get an earth leakage tester to check the plug, the simpler ones are not that expensive. Tests earth (wether it can trip the earth leakage) and polarity.
Click to expand...

no he doesnt. so i guess that narrows it down. my dads friends an electrition. will borrow his meter
 
It's definatly an earth leakage prob. Check that it hasn't come out inside the plug, the wire that is.
 
+1 on the earth leakage problem. Have the same thing on all the video/audio connections on my TV, DVD player and radio. I've been too lazy to get stuck into fixing it. I think I like leaving it this way, though. It's quite good fun. "Here, mate, plug this video connection in while I get a beer"... always fun to watch. For how long before it turns to flames I just don't know. :D
 
TheRift said:
+1 on the earth leakage problem. Have the same thing on all the video/audio connections on my TV, DVD player and radio. I've been too lazy to get stuck into fixing it. I think I like leaving it this way, though. It's quite good fun. "Here, mate, plug this video connection in while I get a beer"... always fun to watch. For how long before it turns to flames I just don't know. :D
Click to expand...

:twisted:

Best get that sorted out ASAP - you never know when something might start burning though... then it'll be too late and more expensive. :whistle:

You can test the earth leakage yourself by pushing the test button. If it trips, then the problem might be somewhere - but if it doesn't trip, then the unit might be faulty, or incorrectly wired. If you're not familiar with these things, best get a sparky out to check things out...
 
Yeah, I know. It's been like this for close on 2 years now. I'll be checking the plugs at some point and then have a look at the internals of the wall socket. Got a feeling it's in there that there's an issue.

Also... the wierdest moment was testing out my ipod video... you know, the one with the metal back cover. :D
 
My iMac does it as it doesn't have a 3 pin plug, only the rounded 2 pin ones. There is a hole in in for what I guessed to be earth and I stuck a piece of metal in there, all is well now. :D With the metal keyboard it use to shock everytime I touched it.

Wonder why it came with such a crap plug.

Also I had this issue the other day with the lan I hosted where one of the extenstion cords I was using, earth leakage had come out. Opended it up stuck it back in and everything was A OK from there on.
 
now heres another problem. this is so confusing. ok so got my new pc parts today. so i plug in the psu to ground my case and i get shocked. so i try another plug. get shocked. try a 3rd plug..........shocked!. wtf?

ok so i think theres static in it from delivery( polystirene?) anyway now i plug it in get shocked. unplug this pc and plug in new one. get shocked. so it must be the box coz my pc is fine(the old one im typing this on) wtf. and i think i've found an explanation for my friends pc. he builds up static when travelling to lan???

but now heres the confusing part. he says when he travels back home and plugs in his pc theres no static?

wtf wtf wtf?
 
And if you plug the PSU in while not in the case does it still shock you?

By the way, if you are using the socket for grounding remember to leave the switch turned off. :)

Static will discharge when it shocks you. It won't gather up again when you head to the next plug so it doesn't sound like a static build up.

I think the signs are quite obvious that there's something wrong with your wiring. Blaming static isn't going to fix it. :)
 
hahaha im not blaming im just tryna understand.

but if its the wiring then look at this situation: ok in plug( lets call it 1) 1 i have this pc that i am typing this message with. the pc works fine and it does not shock at all. now i unplug this pc and put in the new one. in the same plug the new pc shocks me:confused: when my pc is unplugged, it doesnt shock me but as soon as i plug it in to "ground" it the pc shocks.

my friend said that the plug could be sending too much power for my power supply to handle and thus it "Leaks" electricity. is my friend high:confused:
 
Have had the problem before.

Turned out that there was a problem on the earth on the plug, so the pc wasn't earthed properly.

If it was static, it would be discharged as you plug it in cause it's earthed. In your case it's not earthed and hence it shocks cause you're earthed and the electricity discharges into you.

It's probably the plug. Get it checked out by an electrician asap.
 
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Your friend is dillusional. :D A plug won't send too much power. The PC will pull the required power (amps).

I assume you're using the same power cable for both those tests. Is that correct? Or are you just pulling your current PC out the socket and plugging the other one in, or are you using the same cable and pulling it out from the power supply and then into the other one.
 
As suggested, probably the earth.
I have also seen this a lot where people made their own extension leads, but they did not use a twin and earth type wire. In other words there are two wires in the lead, one going to positive and other to neutral and nothing to earth point.
 
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