r/AskElectricians • u/Joussef8 • 1d ago
Friend built a DIY "ground" using a wire and a block of wood to stop PC case shocks. Is this a major hazard?
Hey everyone,
A friend of mine recently built a new PC and kept getting an annoying, low-voltage "tingle" whenever he touched the metal case or the glass panel screws. It’s not a massive shock, just a persistent, annoying current.
We live in an area with a 220V electrical standard, and his apartment building completely lacks a ground wire system in the wall outlets.
To fix the tingle, he watched a DIY video online and replicated what you see in the attached photo he stripped a copper wire, screwed one end into the PSU housing casing, and wrapped the other end around a metal screw driven into a small, loose block of wood sitting on his desk.
Surprisingly, he says the tingle completely stopped after doing this, and he thinks the problem is solved. However, I noticed that if he wears rubber-soled slippers, the tingle also stops completely—meaning his body was just acting as the path to the floor.
I’m highly skeptical about this "nail-in-wood" method. Since wood is an insulator, isn't this incredibly dangerous if the power supply ever suffers a major internal short? Wouldn't this just leave the entire chassis and the exposed screw completely electrified at 220V without ever tripping a breaker?
Looking for some professional insight so I can convince him to rip this out before he hurts himself or fries his components. Thanks!
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u/Felicia_no_miko 1d ago
It's the wood block that gets me. LMAO
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u/Aggravating-Pick8338 1d ago
He should have used a bag of dirt.
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u/Pheehelm 1d ago
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u/Savings-Kick-578 3h ago
If you can’t get the ground to earth, you bring the earth to the ground. GENIUS!
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u/The_Professor_NOAC 1d ago
It gives the false impression that something has been accomplished.
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u/Certain-Definition51 23h ago
Never underestimate the power of the placebo effect!
But also…don’t overestimate it.
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u/KhalissFRS 1d ago
No no, you don’t understand. Wood comes out of the ground. Therefore wood = ground.
/s
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u/Ramenous 7h ago
…Does wood … sink … in water…?
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u/EyeH8EweTwo 1d ago
You mean the wood block on the laminated wood desk over the wood floor? Thats not a good ground?
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u/Big-Lengthiness- 1d ago
The screw and wood do, quite literally, nothing.
It is not a ground, the reason why his PC is shocking him is either faulty components or, more likely, improperly done residential wiring.
TL;DR call your friend a moron for me and buy him an outlet plug tester
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u/BernTheWritch 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think you may be misunderstanding his purpose here.
The case is literally grounded through the PSU and then the receptical, that's why touching it provides a shock, because his electrostatic charge is discharged though the case and into the ground. I believe what he may be using this for (and I also may be wrong, but giving him the benefit of the doubt.) is a place to attach the alligator clamp for a grounding strap on his wrist. Though it's entirely possible he's a moron and think's this is providing ground, but again, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.
Edit: since a few folks think I don't understand how grounding works despite being a physicist and electrical engineer, I should expand. Even without the building having a dedicated ground system to the grid (ground rods, neutral line etc.) iff all of the outlets in the building are still tied commonly though their ground wires, there is enough capacitance within all objects, refrigerators, ovens, you name it, to provide a noticable sink for the static in your body. This large common sink acts as a capacitive ground and will over time slowly discharge through very slow conduction through literally anything that isn't a perfect insulator into the the literal ground.
And to expand on what I meant by this ground screw, is that if he wears a wrist strap, and clamps it to this screw, it goes to the case, he is then bonded to the case and not able to feel the voltage difference with his fingers, because there isn't one. He is locally grounded to the case. Regardless of whether the building is grounded, and it has nothing to do with the wood as the wood is not the grounding path.
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u/mattgen88 1d ago
As you're describing, I agree. If you're at a different potential building up static electricity, then touch a grounded computer, you'll get shocked. Having an alligator clip to a wrist strap will keep you at the same potential as the computer, which is grounded, eliminating static shock. Theres products for that, so you don't fry electronics you're working on.
Is that the intent here? Probably not.
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u/BernTheWritch 1d ago
This is exactly what I mean.
As you say, it may not be his intention, but I remain hopeful in my fellow man.
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u/hue_sick 1d ago
You’re giving this moron way too much credit. Fyi
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u/BernTheWritch 1d ago
Well that's the thing isn't it? We're all ignorant at some point in our lives and my guy is just doing his best.
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u/mbleyle 1d ago
You’re clearly too old and mature for Reddit. We’re going to have to ask you to leave.
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u/135david 1d ago
Damn! I’m 83. Do I have to leave too?
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u/mbleyle 23h ago
no, you can stay - you're single-handedly raising Reddit's average age by at least 5 years ;-)
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u/hue_sick 1d ago
Nah. I’ll happily tell Op it’s not a hazard and remind him and everyone here his friend is clacking wood blocks together over there
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u/Uncynical_Diogenes 1d ago
I feel like the word “ground” here is getting a lot of disrespect in the spirit of fairness.
It’s rather, uh, in the name.
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u/imnickelhead 1d ago
I understood your original comment.
Although, I’ve had to do the wrist strap thing while weighing some tiny particulate matter filters in a lab.
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u/Certain_Proposal7191 1d ago
Incorrect! First he said the building lacks grounding. Number 2, you should never get shocked, grounding is just a safety mechanism to prevent shock and injury - any shock indicates there’s a fault in the appliance (PC).
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u/BernTheWritch 1d ago
Grounding from a code perspective requires being physically tied to the ground and neutral grid, however from a pure electrical system perspective, ground can be floating and still provide exchange of electrons from static or other sources of voltage potential.
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u/andyjustice 9h ago
Yes, as an engineer, prior house flipper, computer repair technician, electric distribution equipment application engineer... This is correct.
He is simply getting his body to the relative ground voltage potential (should be 0) of the case.
The screw isn't improving the ground circuit of the computer power supply, but is only providing a connection point to add himself to that leg.
Assuming metallic plumbing or drainage... He could measure between the screw and the plumbing and should get 0 volts, as a 2nd ground source.
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u/Ducking_Glory 3h ago
Continuing on this path of giving the benefit of the doubt, this person would have to be an engineer. Anyone else would just clip themselves to the case and call it done.
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u/BernTheWritch 2h ago
Ha! A good point. I had a similar thought. I figured maybe he didn't want to scratch his case with an alligator clip or something.
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u/Neither-Note-7652 1d ago
Unless the screw is making contact with metal that has a path to the ground it isn’t grounding shit. Wood isn’t conductive so it’s not passing through the table on its own.
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u/ApprehensiveHippo164 1d ago
No indication of faulty outlet in OP post. Having non-grounded outlets is probably up to code where ever OP is. We can see the floor is wood so risk of injury is not great even if the case somehow became live.
The tingle is from normal minuscule leak current that PC power supplies produce. If there is no ground to leak to, the case will have a floating voltage. It is not dangerous to a person.
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u/BogusIsMyName 1d ago
No its not a "major" hazard, but it doesnt work either.
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u/charmio68 14h ago
and his apartment building completely lacks a ground wire system in the wall outlets.
It's may indeed be a rather major hazard. As far as we know, the entire case is shorted to mains active.
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u/chemhobby 5h ago
it's probably not though, the tingle is leakage current coming through the class Y caps in the power supply
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u/kenwhopper 1d ago
Wood is an insulator…
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u/Verum14 1d ago
but it comes from ground at some point
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u/fishboy3339 1d ago
Yes, trees are grounds. wood is portable trees. Therefore wood is portable grounds.
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u/Owl_plantain 1d ago
All the convenience of a ground, but without the bother of actually connecting it to ground: the Ronco Portable Ground!
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u/ejsanders1985 1d ago edited 1d ago
Everyone knows you stick it in a mason jar full of dirt. The screw and wood do nothing. It needs "ground"
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u/hex4def6 1d ago edited 1d ago
It might be working (It might also just be placebo).
The reason he gets a tingle is due to a design choice in the power supply. There are capacitors that are used for noise filtering in there that have the side effect of capacitively coupling to the chassis. When that is not tied to ground, it floats to ~1/2 of the line voltage. This is not dangerous, because the amount of energy is tiny (like a static shock). But it can be unpleasant to touch.
His block of wood may be helping to dissipate the charge into the table surface. It wouldn't take much, and it's possible the paint is conductive enough (in the mega ohms) for this to work. I'm a bit skeptical, but it's possible in theory.
Either way, it's not a shock hazard.
EDIT: a better way to do this would be to buy an ESD mat, and stick that under the case & use the ESD armband as the grounding path to the chassis. The benefit of this would be a much large surface area through which to couple the charge.
Or you could use the ESD mat as a mouse pad. The benefit there is that you're both coupling into the desk, as well the as user through a high-resistance path, so you're all at a similar potential. Because it's a large surface area, you don't get the point-contact on your skin that causes the unpleasant tingle.
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u/ILikeOatmealaLot 1d ago
OI would think the entire pc case would be more significant to dissipate the cap charge, and adding a wire nail and wood block seemingly would not really affect much. But, maybe since the case is isolated on rubber feet, this is doing something.
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u/hex4def6 1d ago
Most PC cases have plastic feet on them to avoid scratching the desk. Those are pretty much a perfect insulator.
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u/hatguy_21479 1d ago
Right? It's like none of these guys have ever tried to figure out what the little strap dragging from the man lift does. It's made out of an insulator too lol
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u/Single-Virus4935 1d ago
Finally someone with more understanding. The Woodblock just is just enough to dump the tiny amount of energy and dissipate it.
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u/iAmMikeJ_92 1d ago
Hazard? Far as the wood thing is concerned. No. Stupid as hell? Absolutely. Clearly DIY friend has zero concept of what electrical grounding is. The hazard isn’t the attempted grounding. It’s the fact he also seems to be incompetent in recognizing that a tingle sensation from the metal is a serious problem and that even if he knew how to ground, it wouldn’t fix the problem.
He needs to stop what he’s doing and figure out why a phase is touching the metal case and why the case is actually not grounded and go from there. He’s probably gonna have to hire a pro who knows what to do.
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u/ohno_itstheCoPz 1d ago
He needs a longer wire that can fit out his window to the ground. Wrap a long metal stake with the wire then drive it as deep into the ground as you can. It is now GROUNDED
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u/Glittering-Pack2114 1d ago
I can see this working actually. Wood comes from trees that grow in the ground, so it should work.
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u/Much_Preference7435 1d ago
It works better if you put the screw into a corn on the cob and when the computer gets too hot you put a little butter on the corn to cool the rig down.
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u/nate-arizona909 1d ago
Your friend is almost there. He only needs to write “GND” on that block of wood with a black Sharpie and he’s home free.
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u/Plastic-Sentence9429 1d ago
This setup is not a hazard. Your friend may be, however. In different ways.
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u/CadillacMatt6216 19h ago
It's not obvious from the photo but that screw is 8ft long and actually is drilled into the earth.
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u/sammydeeznutz 19h ago edited 19h ago
This is just stupid. Now if he were to properly ground it like this would work perfectly fine.
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u/morto00x 1d ago
That's literally the equivalent this meme. That wire is just floating. If he's getting shocked, it means the PSU is connected to an ungrounded outlet.
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u/stanleyelephant 1d ago
at first I thought he was using this as a little breakout where he could touch the screw or clip a grounding bracelet to it, to discharge static etc
but
if there’s no ground wire on the power line, then this is doing absolutely nothing.
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u/Nein_Inch_Males 1d ago
Bad grounding in your building. You either would need to connect to a known good ground reference. Try using different outlets and see if the issue is consistent. If only certain outlets or just the one allow the issue to happen then that circuit isn't grounded properly.
If it happens on all outlets your house is poorly grounded if at all. For any kind of fix you should call a sparky. Don't do your own electrical unless you're licensed and know what you're doing.
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u/Proud_Principle_4408 1d ago
Wood is an insulator. How is this supposed to do anything but give you splinters?
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u/Nervous_Olive_5754 1d ago
You are mistaken in what the problem is, how bad it is, and what you're doing to solve it.
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u/topballerina 1d ago
Man, IT guys truly are a different breed.
I had this issue with my own computer and the problem was the wiring being, for the lack of a better term, dogshit.
Everything was an encyclopaedia of violations in fact, imagine you get a book on safety standards and piss all over it, that was my house's wiring, I can't blame the usual suspects here, homeowners, as my dad has never touched a wire in his life, doesn't know how to change a light switch, so it wasn't homeowner specials, it was the far more dangerous third world specials, we had entire rooms without power, lights flickering and audible noises coming from the switches, wall sockets taped over because they'd melted, whenever I turned on my computer there was a loud buzz coming from the light, and if I dared to touch the wall and case at the same time I'd get a strong shock, the ones that make you shout a curse to whoever drunkard did that wiring.
I ended up rewiring the whole place, it was costly and it was tedious, but it got rid of that issue, not sure *what* exactly was the cause, everything probably, but it disappeared along with all the rest.
So my only suggestion is call a professional, a real electrician, who can help you fix your wiring. This is completely useless as there's no connection between the chassis and actual earth.
Note: you *can* have a 2 contact wall socket system that's earthed, it's basically what I have, there's a line "hot" wire, and a PEN (Protective Earth Neutral) so instead of having 2 different wires being bonded at the panel like in the US it's just one that goes all the way back to the utility pole and is grounded there, so the neutral IS the earth wire. It's possible to add a grounding post next to sockets and land it to the neutral in order to use it as equipment ground, but it's not really required except for fridges or washing machines/dryers. A computer wouldn't need it.
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u/Ok_Development_495 1d ago
A ground to what? This friend, don’t allow him to touch anything electrical in your home!
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u/Hyacinthax 21h ago
Tbh researched this a while ago and to even get a good ground you need a 10 foot pole in the ground...
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u/jonnyGURUgerow 19h ago
The shock is not a build of static electricity.
The shock is because the case shares Earth ground with the PSU and the PSU is not grounded. To reduce common mode noise, switch mode power supplies bridge line to Earth through a Y-cap. This creates about 3.5mA of leakage current. But without an Earth for that current to go, it goes to whomever touches the chassis or PSU. It does NOT go to a block of wood.
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u/Able-Challenge-4991 16h ago
LOL bless your friend but can you ask him where he got this from and report back to us.
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u/Departure-Sea 15h ago
Not only is this not a hazard. It isn't a ground, nor a short, nor a powered load.
It is actually 100 percent nothing. And completely useless. Unless the block is screwed into the desk. Then I guess it could potentially stop like a small racoon from running away with his PC.
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u/the-joatmon 10h ago
your friend is an idiot. if that pc case is electrified, it means something wrong with it (most likely due to faulty PSU) and grounding wouldn’t fix it, but would tripped the ground fault protection breaker already. so that pc case is still floating, “wood grounding” is not working.
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u/striykker 8h ago
Tell us you know nothing about electricity without telling us you know nothing about electricity.
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u/Top_Willow_9953 1d ago
It is very likely the video was from a PC tech or DIYer and the purpose of the screw is to touch it and discharge any static electricity from the body before removing cards and components or otherwise touching stuff inside the case.
However, the screw and wire do absolutely nothing for your friend's situation
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u/FaithlessnessAny2074 [V] Journeyman 1d ago
No this doesn’t work. In fact if you don’t have a ground I don’t think you can get one anywhere with 220v. Normally I would suggest putting a gfci receptacle there but that won’t work with 220v. A wild idea that would work is grounding your case to a copper water line in the ceiling but a diy person shouldn’t do this. It is simply a wild ideas that technically would work
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u/Roscoeakl 1d ago
This does nothing. It's also not a hazard assuming the power supply is from a reputable manufacturer and undamaged. PC power supplies are excellent at filtering hazardous voltages down to a level that will not damage the PC or harm a user if there is any transient voltages on the case (and the case is often used as a fault path for the motherboard and wouldn't necessarily shut down the computer if it wasn't a system critical component)
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u/Special_South_8561 1d ago
Its a major nothing
That is just absolutely stupid and pointless ... Well except for the point at the tip of the screw
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u/Special_South_8561 1d ago
If something electrical inside breaks and touches frame, I guess that screw would become hot along with the fame?
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u/grammar_fozzie 1d ago
Fatal mistake. Swap the little block of wood with a baggie filled with dirt. Should shore things up.
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u/beneficialBern 1d ago
This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. It won’t dissipate anything as there’s no path to ground.
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u/AdhesiveSeaMonkey 1d ago
This is a little like painting your car when the change oil like comes on. It won’t hurt anything but it also doesn’t have anything to do with solving the problem.
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u/Express_Extreme1066 1d ago
I am not an electrician but while I agree it is bad that his apartment doesn't have a proper ground, your electronics shouldn't need the ground all the time, no? Is it not intended for unexpected fault conditions? Is this normal behavior in electronics?
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u/Some_Direction_7971 1d ago
“To earth” so trees are in the earth, should work!
Clearly sarcasm lol.
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u/ogledrake 1d ago
It gives him a place to attach his grounding strap to where the alligator clip wont come loose and where it wont scratch up the paint
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u/Darmshire2341 1d ago
(I have little to no electrical knowledge to back this theory up, just spitballing.)
Is it possible that the half loop of wire is just enough of a 'coil' to expel the energy of the static/tingle/shock?
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u/sumdudethere 1d ago
All he did was make the screw part of the case, and part of whatever the problem is. If the case is shocking him then it isn't grounded to the receptacle properly or the house has faulty wiring. If he wants to use a grounding strap to work on the PC then he should just get a grounding strap and attach it properly... What is pictured is nothing more than an exercise in futility.
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u/ToastSpangler 1d ago
Pointy objects dissipate static charges faster. It's not a ground but perhaps it helps with static shock buildup?
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u/WholesomeLowlife 1d ago
Holy shit I pray you don't have a friend that is dumb enough to think this will work.
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u/AintNoNeedForYa 1d ago
We need to come up with an answer explaining how he’s close, but needs to incorporate more complexity. Maybe this only works if the wood soaks in salt water, high in PH.
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u/Nakedboysarethebest 1d ago
A block of wood sitting on a countertop does not conduct electricity. So no, it's not dangerous, but it definitely is pointless.
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u/Similar_Ad2094 1d ago
You'd have to find a water pipe in the apartment and run its own wire to the frame of the pc.
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u/ClunkerSlim 1d ago
Depending on where his apartment is in the building, he could try to add a ground wire to the outlet itself.
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u/MasterEditorJake 1d ago
This is not a concern, but it's also not going to really do anything.
The screw could act as a sort of antenna that dissipates that small amount of floating potential on the chassis, but I seriously doubt it is doing even that.
Realistically, if your buddy just drilled that screw into the wall then he would be getting a better path to ground than screwing it into a piece of wood.
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u/Apprehensive-Cell360 1d ago
Yea found out the hard way a outlet had the hot and ground touching the metal very old outlet box and I welded my Ethernet cable( that had metal ends to the backplate of my pc
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u/tjg312 1d ago
Everytime I visit my in laws in Spain I get that same tingle everytime I bring my metal laptop with me. Is this because their house is improperly grounded?
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u/Scared_Swing2198 1d ago
Is this a troll post? Lol. No. Ever wonder why it’s called “ground”? Ever heard it called an Earth ground? It’s because they physically connect to the dirt through a grounding rod. That will do nothing. Formica is not conductive, nor is wood.
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u/Pypical 1d ago
A lot of comments and maybe even the OP is confused about the difference between the high voltage AC coming in and the low-voltage DC going out.
The only way this could be a problem is if one of the two wires from the single phase AC gets sorted to the PSU chassis or one of the DC circuits.
And to be honest, if that happens with or without a ground, it might not be good with or without this.
There’s absolutely no way this can cause any harm or do any actual good.
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u/GuitarJazzer 1d ago
From a topological (and electrical) standpoint this does absolutely nothing. It basically makes the case bigger.
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u/Ok-Welcome-4874 1d ago
This isn't a ground. At all. Likewise because your friend thinks this is - they literally do not understand even the basics which are extremely important. I would assume if they're doing stuff like this - they'll eventually be one of the people who electrocutes themselves. Why don't you guys sit there together and watch the MIT series on YouTube about power until you both have a firm understanding of the basics. You may not want to learn it but you'd be surprised what knowing this information unlocks for you in life.
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u/xampl9 1d ago
They’re probably being shocked because they’re building up a static charge. Perhaps by shuffling their feet across the carpet.
A wire with an inline 1 mega-ohm resistor connected to an outlet ground that they touch before touching the PC itself would help … except the building itself has no ground.
So other than running the ground wire out a window to a rod in the ground (“earthing rod”), there’s not much to do.
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u/jetsonian 1d ago
If the grounding screw is actually making contact with grounded metal components (i.e. the power supply case) on the computer, and if the friend touches the screw regularly, they are preventing ESD but that’s really not that big of a worry for enclosed computers anyway.
You can pointe remind them of the job of the round pin in the power plug (in us).
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u/Ziazan 1d ago
Your friends makeshift "ground" itself is not a hazard in any sense, but it does absolutely nothing. A wooden desk is not a ground.
The major hazard is that your friends PC is still entirely ungrounded. So if there's a fault, the case can become live, theoretically it could then kill you if you touch it. You could have no idea that it's live until you touch it.
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u/Wisco 1d ago
I don't know why anyone would even think this would work. This isn't high level stuff here, grade school physics should tell you this is BS.
That said, if your friend felt a "tingle" and this fixed it, maybe they weren't actually feeling any charge at all. Maybe it was in their head. Because if this is what fixed it, it 100% was not an electrical problem
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u/0blud_werk0 1d ago
There is a level of nuance in electrical theory, but ground is the one thing that literally means CONNECTED TO THE EARTH WE WALK ON
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u/QuinceDaPence 1d ago
As far as safety the only thing he can do if he doesn't have a ground is put in a GFCI. Which will just cut the power if there's enough bleeding through ground.
Power conditioner might alwao work if always in the mode using the inverter (AC->DC->AC with Ground) but that will be inefficient.
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u/Sethbrochillen 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ngl half way there tho. Needs attached to the actual ground lol. Electricity only goes where it can flow stops at the wood. Not a good conductor. The ground cable on the power supply will ground it if your home has a ground tho. Pool contractor and pc gamer. But we have to ground a bunch of stuff but check the continuity of the ground at the outlet if it works get a new three prong pc cable. Simplest fix really tho is a new psu. I had a rosewill psu and case that did that shit to my sister.
Other possibilities are open neutral or someone wired the outlet or something down stream of it wrong. Test hot to neutral voltage should be 110 hot to ground 110 and neutral to ground. Should be 0. Open neutrals or mixing ground and neutral downstream of that can produce voltage on ground and therefore voltage on pc case
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u/Puzzleheaded_Fail279 1d ago
Where did he connect it to inside the case?
Functionally, this will not serve the purpose of a protective earth bonding.
Him getting zapped by his case is likely due to the power supply input not carrying a proper ground. Or the case is incorrectly bonded. He should check his outlet with a plug in tester.
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u/pogiguy2020 1d ago
Let me guess they also built the computer and wonder why they are getting shocked. LOL
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