1st gen 650D Grounding Issue

I call it 1st gen because I think the later cases have USB3 mobo connectors now?

 

Anyway I've got an odd issue. I live in northern MN and this Winter has been particularly cold and dry. I moved my PC into the family room where there's lots of foot traffic - my rig is fairly exposed too. The case sits on two 2x4's and those sit on the carpet.

 

I've had some real issues with "random" rebooting of my system. The times I've seen it reboot people touched the front panel of the case and discharged static.

 

Has anyone with a 650D ever seen anything like this?

 

I can't always force it to reboot with the touch of my finger (even after shuffling around the carpet). But the times it has someone specifically touched the front bezel of the case. I also have the pop-out door open to run front usb connections along with my headset.

 

Would running a copper wire from the inside of the front bezel to the rest of the case help?

 

Is there something I should look for in particular? I don't see any exposed wires... the only thing I did see was a loose ieee1394 PSU to mobo connector laying on the bottom of my case. One of the tiny colored wires was free of the bundle and resting against the metal in the case. (It wasn't exposed copper but just free from the others).

 

I've been through all the usual steps to check other items

 

HDD, RAM, outlets grounded properly and correct polarity, malware/viruses. I've got a PSU tester on the way but short of that (no pun intended!) I'm left with the case as the primary culprit.

 

I'd love to hear any suggestions!!

Any ideas?

Seems more dangerous to be honest... if the case is grounding ok the static discharge would travel around the mobo and not through it.... hopefully. But if I remove the case I might really wreck something.

 

Just wondering if anyone else ever had this issue and it seems not.

 

Thanks

I've got the wristband thing but I may or may not get around to this anytime soon. But thanks for the idea - it's another good logical troublshooting step I never thought of.

I'd like to re-open this thread....

 

I really think there's a grounding issue with regards to the front panel ports between the PSU. While I do live in a dry environment (especially in Winter), the case shouldn't be discharging static when someone touches it. This is exactly what happens when someone touches my front panel bezel (sometimes).

 

I've got three components which seem to be acting up: Case, PSU, and GPU - I've already contacted the other manufacturers with my issue.

 

In addition to what I wrote above a few months ago, my PC will POST, show the Windows logo, then stop at a black screen. Once in a while it will do that but go right to a BSOD error 101 or 116 (116 seems to be GPU related). This all started happening after my front panel was touched (with static discharge) by my 1 year old a few times early this year.

 

I've verified the outlet is grounded with a multimeter. Something in this case is not though.... for a $200 case to exhibit these issues is rather odd - and frustrating.

 

I'm RMAing my PSU but I'm afraid it won't actually help unless I can get this case completely grounded.

 

Can the designers take a look at this issue? I've seen a few more users post similar issuees.