Can an ungrounded outlet damage a PC and is there any way to fix it?

[JamesBurgundy]

My gaming rig recently BSODd and died recently while in use. I have a suspicion that the wiring in my house may have potentially damaged my PC.  I live in a developing country (India) and there are no regulations or standards here for proper wiring. Here is what I found.

1. The polarity of the outlet was wrong.  Live wire was connected on left and neutral on the right.  I had a strip cord connected to the outlet and when I used a tester(the screwdriver ones),  it lit up even when the switch on strip cord was off. This has caused my UPS to work without pressing the button.  Since then,  I switched the wiring on all the bad outlets.

2. I also noticed that,  when used the tester on my motherboard,  it lit up even in the places where there was supposed to be no power including The motherboard standoff screw and rear headphone jack.

 

There is no ground wire in any outlet in my house. Can an ungrounded outlet cause a computer to die and is there anyway to ground outlets without ground wire?

[knightslugger]

5 minutes ago, FabulousGamer said:

My gaming rig recently BSODd and died recently while in use. I have a suspicion that the wiring in my house may have potentially damaged my PC.  I live in a developing country (India) and there are no regulations or standards here for proper wiring. Here is what I found.

1. The polarity of the outlet was wrong.  Live wire was connected on left and neutral on the right.  I had a strip cord connected to the outlet and when I used a tester(the screwdriver ones),  it lit up even when the switch on strip cord was off. This has caused my UPS to work without pressing the button.  Since then,  I switched the wiring on all the bad outlets.

2. I also noticed that,  when used the tester on my motherboard,  it lit up even in the places where there was supposed to be no power including The motherboard standoff screw and rear headphone jack.

 

There is no ground wire in any outlet in my house. Can an ungrounded outlet cause a computer to die and is there anyway to ground outlets without ground wire?

not without considerable effort.

 

you have to drive a copper grounding rod outside and connect it to your power distribution box. if each of your outlets have 3 wire conductors, but they aren't connected, or are but they go no where, it might be as simple as connecting that grounding rod to the ground in the box and viola. but if each outlet is non-grounded, and you only have 2 wire conductors, you are looking at a full rewire.

[kurtstir]

2 minutes ago, FabulousGamer said:

My gaming rig recently BSODd and died recently while in use. I have a suspicion that the wiring in my house may have potentially damaged my PC.  I live in a developing country (India) and there are no regulations or standards here for proper wiring. Here is what I found.

1. The polarity of the outlet was wrong.  Live wire was connected on left and neutral on the right.  I had a strip cord connected to the outlet and when I used a tester(the screwdriver ones),  it lit up even when the switch on strip cord was off. This has caused my UPS to work without pressing the button.  Since then,  I switched the wiring on all the bad outlets.

2. I also noticed that,  when used the tester on my motherboard,  it lit up even in the places where there was supposed to be no power including The motherboard standoff screw and rear headphone jack.

 

There is no ground wire in any outlet in my house. Can an ungrounded outlet cause a computer to die and is there anyway to ground outlets without ground wire?

if there was a surge it may have fried your psu. Also you cant get a surge protector?

[Majestic]

There is no polarity with AC, hence you can plug it in both ways. And yes, you can have an EM build-up on your chassis that can damage hardware.

[JamesBurgundy]

Just now, kurtstir said:

if there was a surge it may have fried your psu. Also you cant get a surge protector?

I had a UPS,  no surge protector. No power surges recently .  Pc just died randomly when it was on.

[JamesBurgundy]

1 minute ago, Majestic said:

There is no polarity with AC, hence you can plug it in both ways. And yes, you can have an EM build-up on your chassis that can damage hardware.

Sorry,  I didn't mean polarity what I meant that the live wire was connected to left instead of right.

[knightslugger]

1 minute ago, FabulousGamer said:

I had a UPS,  no surge protector. No power surges recently .  Pc just died randomly when it was on.

UPSs need grounding to. they cannot be internally grounded.

[JamesBurgundy]

2 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

UPSs need grounding to. they cannot be internally grounded.

Anyway to ground without rewiring?

[Majestic]

4 minutes ago, FabulousGamer said:

Sorry,  I didn't mean polarity what I meant that the live wire was connected to left instead of right.

Yeah but if you're not grounding it, it makes little difference. AC is constantly shifting polarity, it's the nature of AC. If AC had polarity (so an actual + or -) you shouldn't be able to plug it in either way (the cord). I'm not quite sure why they have an L and an N with AC, but i'm suspecting it's due to grounding to prevent groundloops or because of multiple phases.

[knightslugger]

1 minute ago, FabulousGamer said:

Anyway to ground without rewiring?

you can drive an 8' copper rod into the ground nearby, drill a hole in the wall, and ground the outlet. that would work. for that one outlet.

[knightslugger]

1 minute ago, Majestic said:

I'm not quite sure why they have an L and an N with AC

one wire carries voltage into the appliance, one wire carries voltage away from the appliance. simple!

[JamesBurgundy]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

you can drive an 8' copper rod into the ground nearby, drill a hole in the wall, and ground the outlet. that would work. for that one outlet.

Well,  that seems simpler. Will do that.

[Majestic]

Just now, knightslugger said:

one wire carries voltage into the appliance, one wire carries voltage away from the appliance. simple!

A current is carried, not a voltage. And again, AC (alternating current) is a sinewave, the 110-230V you measure is even an average, it's not the peak-to-peak voltage of the sine.

[knightslugger]

Just now, Majestic said:

A current is carried, not a voltage. And again, AC (alternating current) is a sinewave, the 110-230V you measure is even an average, it's not the peak-to-peak voltage of the sine.

well OK current at voltage. fine fine. oi.

[W-L]

17 minutes ago, FabulousGamer said:

-SNIP-

It's less of a worry to the PC as a safety hazard as it can potentially build up a a dangerous amount of charge which can shock you if you were to touch the case. It's more of safety than anything else as mentioned a UPS will not help as it needs a ground pin, your best option would be to have someone come in a see if they can properly install a ground or remedy the issue of the lack of grounding in the whole home. 

[JamesBurgundy]

5 minutes ago, Majestic said:

A current is carried, not a voltage. And again, AC (alternating current) is a sinewave, the 110-230V you measure is even an average, it's not the peak-to-peak voltage of the sine.

This was the issue I was having.

[Majestic]

3 minutes ago, FabulousGamer said:

This was the issue I was having.

That links to a post explaining exactly the same thing I was saying.

[FiveNine]

12 minutes ago, knightslugger said:

you can drive an 8' copper rod into the ground nearby, drill a hole in the wall, and ground the outlet. that would work. for that one outlet.

This is what i did in my old house. The wiring was done in the 60's and it's horrible.. Dug up a small canal, and connected the rod with the outlet through the wall. Never had any issues. 

[JamesBurgundy]

6 minutes ago, Majestic said:

That links to a post explaining exactly the same thing I was saying.

I mean I had power on my strip cord even when it was turned off,  flipped the "polarity"  on source from LN to NL and the problem was fixed.

[Majestic]

1 minute ago, FabulousGamer said:

I mean I had power on my strip cord even when it was turned off,  flipped the "polarity"  on source from LN to NL and the problem was fixed.

Oh so you mean it's a single-pole switch? Ah yes, that would make sense. Only the N is grounded. It also means this is considered "safe", as with the live wire you become the ground

[W-L]

20 minutes ago, FabulousGamer said:

This was the issue I was having.

4 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Oh so you mean it's a single-pole switch? Ah yes, that would make sense. Only the N is grounded. It also means this is considered "safe", as with the live wire you become the ground

As said in that post you don't want to reverse polarity cause sometimes it can cause some dangers at times with contacting potentially the hot side of the circuit a good example of this is in an edison light bulb where the metal screw portion would be live and can shock you. 

 

[Majestic]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

As said in that post you don't want to reverse polarity cause sometimes it can cause some dangers at times with contacting potentially the hot side of the circuit a good example of this is in an edison light bulb where the metal screw portion would be live and can shock you. 

 

Yeah true, I was speaking in terms of functionality to the hardware. Then it makes no difference (apart from the on/off switch), as it's AC and the "polarity" is constantly switching anyway.

As a safety hazard, with only the N being grounded, it's ofcourse important. Which also answers my earlier question why there is a L and an N

[scottyseng]

10 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Yeah true, I was speaking in terms of functionality to the hardware. Then it makes no difference, as it's AC and the "polarity" is constantly switching anyway.

As a safety hazard, with only the N being grounded, it's ofcourse important. Which also answers my earlier question why there is a L and an N

Yeah, I know in theory the AC would work, but it's better to stick to electrical code. I did work at a restaurant where the previous derp electrician used ground as line for some connections because they ran out of wire...when we tried to work on it, hilarity ensued as we kept wondering why we were getting shocked for some odd reason (We assumed ground was ground).

 

Also, the same derp electrician miswired a transformer for three phase 277 (480V) to 120V (220V) and put one of the high voltage wires on the neutral leg of the transformer...which also pigtailed to ground (they were too cheap to ground it separately)...I don't want to imagine what would have happened if it were actually turned on (We fixed it before it ever was). No fuse or breaker for the transformer either...

 

Long story short, just stick to electrical code please...save us poor electricians...

[Majestic]

Again, colors and the distinguish between L and N are all under the banner: "human factors". It can't damage the hardware. Unless you consider yourself hardware.