PC shocks me when I touch certain parts

[irevidedxl]

Hello everyone,

I just finished building my gaming PC and noticed I'm getting shocked when I touch some metal parts of peripherals which is plugged in. I first wanted to plug in my headset at the back of my motherboard, there are two jacks one for mic and one for audio. When I inserted one of the two I wanted to insert the next one. I touched it by the audio jack (the metal part) and it shocked me. The longer I hold on to it the longer it'll shock me. The same thing happened when I wanted to plug in the antenna to my motherboard for the WiFi thing (I've got a Z390)

I've read so many things on the internet that I should take everything apart again and put it back together, that there is something wrong with electricity wires in my house and I don't know what else. To answer some common questions you guys might ask, I'll answer them for you.
 

• I've got no carpets or anything static near me
• I live in Thailand so the weather here is humid
• The PC is standing on a wooden table
• My PC and monitor are both plugged in a power extension cord

 

My specs:

 

RTX 2080 MSI Gaming X Trio

intel i7 8700 

16 GB of RAM

Thermaltake 750W PSU

Asus ROG Strix Z390

 

Also can someone tell me what "grounding" means? I've read it on all different kind of posts but I couldn't a proper definition for it. (Sorry my English isn't very good) Does grounding got anything to do with this issue? All the help is welcome, cheers! 

 

[191x7]

Most electrical systems use a power phase wire, a zero wire, and a ground wire. The phase carries the voltage to the device, the zero is there to allow for connecting circuits and the ground is there for protection (to carry the voltage that could occur on the "body" of the device into the ground).

 

All devices that have a danger of dangerous electricity coming into contact with a person have to have grounding. PC-s are not an exception.

Grounding = taking electricity into the ground to "negate" it.

 

Here's a photo of a power brick from your area. I marked the grounding pin as GND.

If your house doesn't have grounding you should really upgrade your home electric installation.

 

Also, I've seen bad power strips having some voltage on the grounding so the connected devices would experience issues.

[emosun]

it actually does kind of sound like your house might have a grounding problem if metal parts of the machine are actually electrocuting you and it's not just static electricity. 

The power supply only makes a maximum of 12-14v DC which is not enough to shock any person with. So what you would be feeling would have to be AC current which is either coming from the power supply or from the house

[irevidedxl]

2 hours ago, 191x7 said:

Most electrical systems use a power phase wire, a zero wire, and a ground wire. The phase carries the voltage to the device, the zero is there to allow for connecting circuits and the ground is there for protection (to carry the voltage that could occur on the "body" of the device into the ground).

 

All devices that have a danger of dangerous electricity coming into contact with a person have to have grounding. PC-s are not an exception.

Grounding = taking electricity into the ground to "negate" it.

 

Here's a photo of a power brick from your area. I marked the grounding pin as GND.

If your house doesn't have grounding you should really upgrade your home electric installation.

 

Also, I've seen bad power strips having some voltage on the grounding so the connected devices would experience issues.

Thank you for your answer I think I'll have much electrical installation checked out. Also in the picture below is the plug that came with the PSU so it doesn't have that third GND pin like in your picture. Do you think because of this issue that it is dangerous to use the PC? And would it damage any hardware? 

[irevidedxl]

2 hours ago, emosun said:

it actually does kind of sound like your house might have a grounding problem if metal parts of the machine are actually electrocuting you and it's not just static electricity. 

The power supply only makes a maximum of 12-14v DC which is not enough to shock any person with. So what you would be feeling would have to be AC current which is either coming from the power supply or from the house

Thanks for the answer I see what you mean. I will have my electric installation checked out. 

[191x7]

8 minutes ago, irevidedxl said:

Thanks for the answer I see what you mean. I will have my electric installation checked out. 

Wait, you're living in Thailand but using a Schuko (German-type) power plug?

 

On such a plug, the metal pins on each of the sides are the ground wiring and some power outlets might even have a metal pin sticking out of them like a nail (but those are rare).

[TechyBen]

Could also be a short in the PC/PC case. A loose screw or stray bit of metal or solder.

[irevidedxl]

1 hour ago, 191x7 said:

Wait, you're living in Thailand but using a Schuko (German-type) power plug?

 

On such a plug, the metal pins on each of the sides are the ground wiring and some power outlets might even have a metal pin sticking out of them like a nail (but those are rare).

In Thailand there are 4 sorts of plugs. If you're from the EU you wouldn't even need an adapter because they would work anywhere in Thailand. 

[irevidedxl]

1 hour ago, TechyBen said:

Could also be a short in the PC/PC case. A loose screw or stray bit of metal or solder.

Yep I've checked but couldn't find any unfortunately.

[191x7]

20 minutes ago, irevidedxl said:

In Thailand there are 4 sorts of plugs. If you're from the EU you wouldn't even need an adapter because they would work anywhere in Thailand. 

I am from the EU. So you do use 220V and such (Schuko) plugs? Interesting to know.

 

Anyways, take a multimeter, a voltmeter or a voltage detector and check your power strip for voltage on the grounding pins.

 

Check the marked red parts for voltage while the power strip is plugged into the outlet. The grounding pins (those circled in red) should have no voltage on them.

 

[irevidedxl]

6 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

I am from the EU. So you do use 220V and such (Schuko) plugs? Interesting to know.

 

Anyways, take a multimeter, a voltmeter or a voltage detector and check your power strip for voltage on the grounding pins.

 

Check the marked red parts for voltage while the power strip is plugged into the outlet. The grounding pins (those circled in red) should have no voltage on them.

 

Yeah we use 220V. As you can see here, these are the plugs we use. Thank you for your suggesting I'll try it out once I got the proper tools but I'll have to talk with my electrician about grounding. 

 

But since I got this issue, do you think it'll harm any computer components and would it still be safe to use the PC?

[191x7]

It would be everything but safe. Do not use any device that way.

[boggen]

if it is just the pc. start pulling stuff out, you might have something gone bad. 

 

double check you used the correct size screws for motherboard, and drives. and you did not tight them to much. 

 

the various power cords in pc have seen a few times were a wire has came out of a plug on power cable and lay there. 

 

if using power strip, surge protector, UPS, or like plug directly in wall, perhaps the strip or like has gone bad. 

==========================

if you are getting shocked though, i would be more worried about not just pc but other things.   a bad ground in home, to if you have near by neighbors even them causing some issues coming your way.  

 

not sure if you can you can get an easy "plug in" electrical tester.  to check outlets in home to see if something is going bad in home. 

 

i do not know enough about your power type, to suggest anything else out, beyond calling electrician in and see if they can hunt down why you are getting shocked. 

[Stefan Payne]

Ask an Electrician of your trust to check the Ground of your installation...

 

Maybe you have the TN-C system crap that should never ever have been a thing (combined ground and neutral to the Outlet and connect the PE to the N inside the outlet). 

Yeah, its just that awful and should never have been a thing.

[Guest]

Sounds like your outlet doesn't actually have Earth ground, which is required. 

 

Get yourself the Schuko version of this cheap little tester and confirm:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_outlet_tester?wprov=sfla1

[irevidedxl]

Hello everyone,

 

you guys were right, I contacted my electrician and there was something wrong with my electrical grounding and has been sorted! 

 

Thank you all very much!