PC Crashing - I'm Lost - General-Homebuilt

The issue is this:
[B]When I make contact with the PC[/B]: by hand, by setting side panel against case, or (especially) by usb or esata (even before it's connected!),
[B]it: Crashes. [/B]

It used to give a black screen with red streaks, and then restart. Some times it restarts instantly. Some times it locks up. Some times it locks up as if the HDD was disconnected (the mouse still moves), and then restarts after a delay. Some times it locks up and restarts 5s later.

What else can I try? I am rather amazed at this point.

Thanks.

[SIZE=4][B]These are the solutions I have tried:[/B][/SIZE]

[B]Part/Issue listed first.
The variations of that part I have tried listed between ----'s[/B]

[B]Case:[/B]
HAF 932 ---- NZXT Beta Evo (Known Good.)

[B]GPU: Never crashes during games.[/B]
6950 2gB ---- 9800 (Known Good.)

[B]RAM: Passes memtest.[/B]
Mushkin Silver+Ripjaws ---- Mushkin Black (Known Good.)

[B]HDD: [/B]
Samsung RAID 0 ---- SSD Agility 2 (Used separately(disconnected), still crash.)

[B]PSU:[/B]
Antec HCG 750 ---- Seasonic Gold 750

[B]Power Source: [/B]
6-plug strip ---- CyberPower 810w UPS (Appears Good, other PCs do not crash.)

[B]Optical Drive [/B]
DVD-RW (Known Good) ---- DVD-RW ---- Blu-ray

[B]Mother Board:[/B]
AsRock 880G Extreme 3 ---- Asus P8P67 Evo, Rev. 3.

[B]CPU:[/B]
1055T (Known Good) ---- 2500k

[B]Case Fans:[/B]
Set A (ALL Replaced or Removed) ---- Set B

[B]Extension Cable or Adapter:[/B]
CPU 8-Pin (REMOVED) ---- 3 to 4 Fan Adapter (Was not used until months after the crashing started.)

[B]SATA Cables:[/B]
Set A (ALL Replaced or Removed) ---- Set B

[B]Sound Card:[/B]
X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty (Known Good) ---- X-Fi Titanium ---- Neither

[B]Video Cables:[/B]
(All Tried Separately)

[B]Front Panel I/O:[/B]
Connected ---- Disconnected (Completely disconnected any such thing except (obviously) the rear mobo connections.)

[B]125v Power Cable:[/B]
A ---- B (Known Good)

[B]PC Placement:[/B]
On Carpet ---- On 10" x 22" Board

[B]Heatsink:[/B]
S1283 --- NH-D14

[B]Overclock:[/B]
With (1055T) ---- Without (2500k)

[B]Note on Outlet/Power Source[/B]
Second, third, fourth, and fifth PC Never crash like this.

Message edited by icor1031 on 02-05-2012 at 12:24:08 PM

Reply to icor1031

I'd try these out:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] o-problems

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] o-problems

Doing that will ensure thehuman element is out of the mix and you can pin point the cause.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

My PC starts up just fine, it crashes randomly when I touch the outside of the case.

zolton33 wrote :

I'd try these out:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] o-problems

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] o-problems

Doing that will ensure thehuman element is out of the mix and you can pin point the cause.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to icor1031

icor1031 wrote :

My PC starts up just fine, it crashes randomly when I touch the outside of the case.

And it sounds like its grounded wrong or components are touching that shouldn't. Following those links lets you check for individual problems to isolate the cause. Could be you have 1 of the motherboard screws to tight or you have an extra screw connector under the motherboard unused and uneeded. It could be a wide range of things or something simple. Using that as a guide you can remove your self off the list of the causes as you then know with 100% certainty that each part is installed correctly. I suspect faulty grounding but the only way i know to explain it is for you to follow that to make sure the wires are correctly connected and hence grounded correctly.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

Yeah, all should be good. Had ONE wire behind the mobo, just removed it - but this is a new cable. It has done this months before I bought that cable.

There are no extras.

How would I know if one is too tight? It's basically screwdriver-tight.

zolton33 wrote :

And it sounds like its grounded wrong or components are touching that shouldn't. Following those links lets you check for individual problems to isolate the cause. Could be you have 1 of the motherboard screws to tight or you have an extra screw connector under the motherboard unused and uneeded. It could be a wide range of things or something simple. Using that as a guide you can remove your self off the list of the causes as you then know with 100% certainty that each part is installed correctly. I suspect faulty grounding but the only way i know to explain it is for you to follow that to make sure the wires are correctly connected and hence grounded correctly.

Message edited by icor1031 on 02-05-2012 at 12:33:23 PM

Reply to icor1031

..and I just crashed again, when I put the side of my case against the tower.

Reply to icor1031

And you have no extra screws that screw into your case to hold the motherboard under the motherboard screwed in? One of those touching the motherboard would do it as when you touch the pc you are completing the ground causing itto behave like that.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

No, mate. I've swapped cases and/or remounted about 8 times. I am certain that's not it.

zolton33 wrote :

And you have no extra screws that screw into your case to hold the motherboard under the motherboard screwed in? One of those touching the motherboard would do it as when you touch the pc you are completing the ground causing itto behave like that.

Message edited by icor1031 on 02-05-2012 at 12:34:50 PM

Reply to icor1031

Something is either sending juice to your motherboard or to your case. The reason it acts like that as you yourself are completing the circuit allowing it to ground. Hence why when you touch it it freaks out and shuts down. I suspect if it was putting out more juice then you'd get a good jolt from just touching it lol

Reply to zolton33

At this point I'm fine with not finding the cause.

Is there a .. solution? Would a ghetto ground prevent this?

Reply to icor1031

If its doing that when you touch it i do not think making a permanent ground to the case would be wise as it could potentially harm your pc. Your lucky it hasn't damaged it so far to be honest. Just a bit of static electricity which is not much in amps could do some serious damage to your system. And you have a higher voltage then that leaking to it. I suggest going over it with a fine tooth comb asap and find whats causing it before it does damage your system.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

Oh, it did damage my last mobo.

Look above mate... What is left for me to try, what else can I try? (fine tooth comb)

zolton33 wrote :

If its doing that when you touch it i do not think making a permanent ground to the case would be wise as it could potentially harm your pc. Your lucky it hasn't damaged it so far to be honest. Just a bit of static electricity which is not much in amps could do some serious damage to your system. And you have a higher voltage then that leaking to it. I suggest going over it with a fine tooth comb asap and find whats causing it before it does damage your system.

Message edited by icor1031 on 02-05-2012 at 12:52:16 PM

Reply to icor1031

I'd take everything out and bread board it as was one of my first suggestions lol just to make sure its not one of the interior components then go to putting it back together paying close attention to make sure that nothing is touching the case that shouldn't and counting the screws screwed into the motherboard and making for certain they equal whats screwed into the case (check the case wires inside to see if one is frayed and shorting to the case).

It only takes 1 to cause the motherboard to behave this way. After getting it all back together and after i had made sure that no wires and such are touching the case and the motherboard are ruled out and it doesn't happen while bread boarded i'd contact the maker of my case if under warranty and explain what i did (explaining how you checked for your problem and eliminated each of the other components as a cause) and tell them you believe you got a faulty case.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

What do you mean breadboard?
http://www.circuitboards1.com/wp-c [...] dboard.jpg

The case isn't faulty. As I posted above, it does this in a different case too.

The PSU isn't faulty. See first post.

zolton33 wrote :

I'd take everything out and bread board it as was one of my first suggestions lol just to make sure its not one of the interior components then go to putting it back together paying close attention to make sure that nothing is touching the case that shouldn't and counting the screws screwed into the motherboard and making for certain they equal whats screwed into the case (check the case wires inside to see if one is frayed and shorting to the case).

It only takes 1 to cause the motherboard to behave this way. After getting it all back together and after i had made sure that no wires and such are touching the case and the motherboard are ruled out and it doesn't happen while bread boarded i'd contact the maker of my case if under warranty and explain what i did (explaining how you checked for your problem and eliminated each of the other components as a cause) and tell them you believe you got a faulty case.

Message edited by icor1031 on 02-05-2012 at 01:07:08 PM

Reply to icor1031

Also you wouldn't happened to of cut off your ground off your power cord (turning a 3 prong into a 2) have you? Not sure why but that thought came to me as i've seen people do it and it could possibly cause this is why i'm asking.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

Nope.

zolton33 wrote :

Also you wouldn't happened to of cut off your ground off your power cord (turning a 3 prong into a 2) have you? Not sure why but that thought came to me as i've seen people do it and it could possibly cause this is why i'm asking.

Message edited by icor1031 on 02-05-2012 at 01:09:15 PM

Reply to icor1031

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] adboarding

That is bread boarding in a nut shell basically you build your pc out side of its case so you can check each component to find the culprit. (sorry i thought i posted it but when i checked my post i noticed i must have miss copied it lol)

Reply to zolton33

Yeah, I could do that.. But I don't understand how it would help.

There's nothing for me to touch, to ground it and make it restart.

Or am I missing something?

Reply to icor1031

If its a loose or faulty wire wiggling them in this set up would let you know. Also if its the case you are basically taking it out of the equation. You can check out each component to see if you can replicte the problem by trying each component. When you hit the one that replicates it you've found your problem.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to zolton33

Mate, I've already addressed every one of those in the first post:
Wires: I/O disconnected. Extension disconnected. New fans. Sata replaced. New PSU

Case: Two cases tried. (And for more info, put second PC in this case and it never crashes.)

Each component: Did I leave a single part out in my first post?

zolton33 wrote :

If its a loose or faulty wire wiggling them in this set up would let you know. Also if its the case you are basically taking it out of the equation. You can check out each component to see if you can replicte the problem by trying each component. When you hit the one that replicates it you've found your problem.

Reply to icor1031

So putting a new pc in this case does not crash? There you go its in the components in the case now and as i said bread boarding would allow you to find the single cause of it. >_<

Reply to zolton33

I swapped every component, though.
Unless it takes TWO faulty components to cause it.

I'm going to see if the standoffs or screws are faulty, though. Those I did not change.
Doing that now. Actually, going to do that 'and' slowly rebuild. Only keeping the mobo/cpu/HSF, other hardware (including a THIRD PSU) will be swapped.

Reply to icor1031

It very well be the standoffs or some of the screws. Its hard to help some one without being there and able to see lol

Reply to zolton33

WELL.

I know the ground was not well done in my apartment, I've known that for months.

But I couldn't figure out why 1 PC crashes and the other doesn't, and I still can't.

... I ran an extension cable from the original house up to my PC, and so far even with creating a nice strong spark by rubbing socks on the carpet and then touching the case, 3 times, no crash.

Fixing the ground may be a real pain.

Thanks for your help, gents.

Reply to icor1031

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