Death from Static Electricity...?

[Gerowen]

I'm not certain I've killed it completely; I don't see how grounding myself thru the case could kill something else.  I don't recall specifically which component I grounded to today when I touched it, but if it was a USB port could that have killed the whole thing?  The fact that it comes on and immediately shuts right back off makes me think it might be salvageable.  Could I have nuked a RAM stick?

 

Video link:

 

Edited April 26 by Gerowen
Removed video attachment and added a YouTube link; the video attachment wasn't working properly in some browsers.

[da na]

Touching the case to ground yourself wouldn't have killed a part (or at least should not have). If that was the cause of death, that means another voltage line was connected to ground, and that would've already been causing problems had that been the case.

There is a small chance that static might've arced from the motherboard tray onto the back of the board or from a PCIe slot cover onto the card, but the likelihood of that seems very small. 

You said you grounded yourself through the case but then you "aren't sure which component [you] touched" - did you just touch the outside of the case, or an internal component eg. the GPU backplate? Because if the latter is true, grounding straight to an internal component definitely could've caused the death.

[Gerowen]

3 minutes ago, da na said:

Touching the case to ground yourself wouldn't have killed a part (or at least should not have). If that was the cause of death, that means another voltage line was connected to ground, and that would've already been causing problems had that been the case.

There is a small chance that static might've arced from the motherboard tray onto the back of the board or from a PCIe slot cover onto the card, but the likelihood of that seems very small. 

You said you grounded yourself through the case but then you "aren't sure which component [you] touched" - did you just touch the outside of the case, or an internal component eg. the GPU backplate? Because if the latter is true, grounding straight to an internal component definitely could've caused the death.

I meant I wasn't sure if it was the case itself, or maybe an exposed metal component of the USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, etc.

[da na]

5 minutes ago, Gerowen said:

I meant I wasn't sure if it was the case itself, or maybe an exposed metal component of the USB port, 3.5mm audio jack, etc.

Oh I see. USB port definitely could've discharged straight to the motherboard if you hit just the right spot - though the metal casing around the port would've just discharged to the case.

[RONOTHAN##]

20 minutes ago, da na said:

Touching the case to ground yourself wouldn't have killed a part (or at least should not have)

The only way I can see this possibly happening is if the outlets aren't properly grounded. That unfortunately is more common than it really should be in the US, so it's probably worth getting one of those outlet testers to see if the outlet isn't wired correctly. They aren't perfect, if the previous electrician was scummy and just did a bootleg ground that could cause the outlet tester to false say it's good (at least the cheap ones), but it's at least a start without having to take apart the outlet or get an electrician in there if you don't know what you're doing. 

[Godlygamer23]

What troubleshooting have you actually done so far? Just what's shown in the video above?

[Gerowen]

2 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The only way I can see this possibly happening is if the outlets aren't properly grounded. That unfortunately is more common than it really should be in the US, so it's probably worth getting one of those outlet testers to see if the outlet isn't wired correctly. They aren't perfect, if the previous electrician was scummy and just did a bootleg ground that could cause the outlet tester to false say it's good (at least the cheap ones), but it's at least a start without having to take apart the outlet or get an electrician in there if you don't know what you're doing. 

It's a double wide trailer that we bought new, so I can't speak for the wiring inside the walls, but all of the wiring outside the house for the service box, grounding rods, etc. I did myself, so I know that from the breaker box in the house out to the service box is all good.  Past that into the rest of the house though, I have no idea; I've never had a reason to inspect them after the initial inspection when everything was set up.  I do however have it connected to an UPS, though that wouldn't do anything if the UPS isn't grounded either, but it's not complaining about not having a proper ground.

[Gerowen]

2 hours ago, Godlygamer23 said:

What troubleshooting have you actually done so far? Just what's shown in the video above?

I've swapped the RAM sticks around and re-seated the graphics card; I just dug out a spare power supply and am going to wire it up and see if that fixes it.

[Godlygamer23]

6 minutes ago, Gerowen said:

I've swapped the RAM sticks around and re-seated the graphics card; I just dug out a spare power supply and am going to wire it up and see if that fixes it.

Did you try testing individual RAM modules in each slot, or even taking them out entirely?

[Gerowen]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

Did you try testing individual RAM modules in each slot, or even taking them out entirely?

I haven't tried each one in every individual slot; but I tried each one in one slot from each channel.  Swapping power supplies didn't fix it, so I'll try this with the RAM next.

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Gerowen said:

It's a double wide trailer that we bought new, so I can't speak for the wiring inside the walls, but all of the wiring outside the house for the service box, grounding rods, etc. I did myself, so I know that from the breaker box in the house out to the service box is all good.  Past that into the rest of the house though, I have no idea; I've never had a reason to inspect them after the initial inspection when everything was set up.  I do however have it connected to an UPS, though that wouldn't do anything if the UPS isn't grounded either, but it's not complaining about not having a proper ground.

OK, the UPS not complaining should be enough to say that the outlet is wired correctly, and since it was new it's almost certainly up to electrical code, though since you do seem to have the knowledge you might as well open the outlet and double check that it's good. A bootleg ground can give weird issues and IIRC some UPSes can't pick up on it, so it would be worth checking, though if that was installed out of the factory there would likely be a class action suit against the people manufacturing the trailer at this point. 

[Gerowen]

Troubleshooting update:

- Disconnected all external peripherals except the power cord

- Have tried both memory sticks in each individual memory slot, one at a time

- Have tried a different power supply and as a result, have also re-seated both the 24 pin, PCIe and CPU power connectors

- Have re-seated the graphics card

- Have disconnected the front panel headers and tried manually shorting the power button pins with a screwdriver

- Have disconnected power and data cables for all storage devices

 

It still powers on just for a split second; long enough to cause fan spin but immediately shuts right back off.  I almost think the fan spin though is just the capacitors draining because if I try to power it on a second time immediately after, I get nothing.  The only time I get fan spin and a light is if I turn off power to the power supply and drain the capacitors by holding the power button down for a few moments, then flip the power supply back on and hit the power button again.  It's almost like it just drains the capacitors into a power on attempt but once they're drained they don't get recharged.

[Gerowen]

Of all the random things; reseating the CMOS battery fixed it, lol.

[Gerowen]