Could non grounded outlet cause PSU reset?

[ricno]

I know very little of electronics, but I have a question about running a computer on a outlet with no ground. From what I know, the local law (Sweden) says that electronics in kitchens and bathrooms must be grounded, and everything new built since the 70's must also be grounded I think.

However, most older apartments have all rooms but the kitchen running non grounded. In our apartment I have run two different computers, monitors, routers and USB disks for five years on a non ground connection with no problems.

Some time ago I built a new PC and I am experiencing strange resets on this new system. The whole computer seems to lose power for a splitsecond and then reboots. This happens very infrequently, perhaps once a week at most.

I have been trying to find the root cause of this problem and thought I should ask if the non ground connection could likely be responsible for this?

 

[rolli59]

I doubt that the ground has anything to do with it! Most likely internal protection in the PSU to sensitive.
Then again you could leave the computer in the kitchen for a week.

 

[ricno]

I doubt that the ground has anything to do with it!

Thanks a lot for your answer.

So you do not belive the non ground could cause this kind of instability? A friend claimed he could feel some low tickling creeping current on the computer case, however I can not, but I am sure he is right. This can not "build up" something that leads to a instant reset much later?

Most likely internal protection in the PSU to sensitive.

What does that mean? That there is something fault with the PSU or that is sensitive to some other condition?

The PSU is a "COOLER MASTER SILENT PRO ATX12V 2.3 600W".

Then again you could leave the computer in the kitchen for a week.

The only "problem" is that it would not be appreciated by my wife. It is not even sure it would reset in a week, it has happened perhaps four times and very unregular.

 

[rolli59]

I used to have a power supply that would do this 2 or 3 times a year for no apparent reason. It was protected by "OCP (Over Current Protection), OVP (Over Voltage Protection), UVP (Under Voltage Protection), OLP (Over Power Protection), SCP (Short Circuit Protection) and OTP (Over Temperature Protection) for maximum safety." I always presumed one of these conditions occurred without me noticing anything unusual. (currently live in Florida common voltage spikes)

 

[ricno]

I doubt that the ground has anything to do with it!

It would be nice to be able to rule out that possibility.

Does anyone else have any opinion about if ground/non ground could cause these kind of instant resets?

 

[jsc]

I suppose it could, but I'd think that the problem would occur a little more frequently.

 

[hunter315]

The ground only comes into play when things go bad, the PSU housing and the computer case are all connected to ground, which means if a hot hits it you get a direct short to ground to trigger the protections on the CPU but for intended usage the ground line is not used, the neutral line is what is normally used.

Ground lines are not intended to be primary current carrying conductors, and are only supposed to be used in the event of a dangerous failure. Paperdoc wrote up a nice post on how to deal with outlets without a ground, let me see if i can find that.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264400-28-poor-electrical-ground

 

[ricno]

Thanks for your replies!

 

[ricno]

Best answer selected by ricno.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar