crash and overclock setup

[ohGrFreak]

Wierd thing happened, first of all, I spelled weird wrong, LOL.

Anyways, a month or so ago, I repaired XP Home on this PC, and it ran silky smooth with no crashes or no progs not responding and freezing. It stays on for a couple days straight and then gets shut down properly every few days overnight.

The comp was doing fine today, no problem, until just now, it turned itself off, well, the screen went blank and it acted like the plug was pulled from the socket, but the leds on the front of the case stayed on, needless to say, it started to reboot itself automatically and upon reaching the ASUS mobo screen, it did the same thing. Now this time upon reboot, a new screen I have never seen appeared, the logo was American (something), having a big red "A" logo behind the words. This screen was telling me that my overclocking had failed and it gave me options to go to setup or to continue I think.

So I choose setup, and since I have never overclocked this machine through setup/bios whatever and I haven't overclocked this comp at all for over 4 months, I decided to revert to defaults because everything is basically greek to me in setup. The comp seems to be running fine although the initial XP loading time was increased 20 seconds or so.

I try to keep the comp free from spyware, adware, virus', and keep the registry clean on a weekly basis.

So, my question is what could have happened to cause this and for me to recieve the overclocking error without even overclocking in the first place?

 

[ohGrFreak]

already page two, wow, the forums are cookin today, LOL.

anyways, the comp did it again, it seems to happen when me and my dog are in the room, but still, haven't even touched the comp. the speakers also make a popping sound like they were getting the audio cable pulled out as well when this happens.

i am giving you all the info i can, if you need to know specs, please ask.

 

[ohGrFreak]

my last bump.

alright, i have come to this conclusion.

my comp is positioned underneath my metal desk. the dog is in here only when it shuts off, the comp stays on when the dog is not in the room.

could the dog's fur contain static and when she brushes between the desk and the comp make the comp shutdown due to the electricity?

Other than that wild theory, I have no clue what this could be.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Static electricity is a very good theroy

Is your case \ house properly grounded?

 

[ohGrFreak]

well, i had my comp built by someone else, it has never done this before and i had it for over a year now. the power cord from the psu to the wall is grounded of course. i assume the house is grounded because the majority of the outlets are three prong.

 

[ohGrFreak]

alright, this isn't really a bump persay, because now i know what the problem is and now i'm asking for a solution.

so, i know this, every time the dog rubs against the computer's metal case and/or metal desk, the comp shuts down most likely due to static electricity.

what i want to know is, how do i ground the case and/or the desk so it does not happen again? or is the case already grounded by the power cord, but, could the power cord's ground be faulty in some way?

 

[Skuzzle]

is your dog chipped ??

 

[Skuzzle]

and if it is are you using a wireless network

 

[ohGrFreak]

the dog that is chipped isn't causing the problem, the dog that is causing the problem will be chipped when she goes in for her shots. so, as of now, no.

we have two computers hooked up with a modem/router in the same room via cat5 cable and only this one gets shut off when the dog rubs against it.

i know it sounds weird, this is true, it is making me crazy trying to figure out what on earth is going on. i have never encountered such a weird problem before.

EDIT: would it be wise to run a wire from a thumscrew to a bolt on the desk, would the metal from the desk ground the case to the comp?