I thought that my computer wasn't working because I painted the case with non-conductive paint. I thought that since the motherboard had to ground to the case, the case had to ground to the PSU to complete the circuit. I guess that isn't true and I don't understand why nothing is turning on. All the power is plugged in and on and the PSU IS good. My power button is also good as I tested it with a multimeter. If anyone needs more info to help, just ask.
Really you want powder. It uses static electricity to literally attract the paint to the case, allowing electricity to transfer efficiently and eah paint particle repels creating an even coat.
1. Conductive paint is easy to get. It is used to shield the cavities in guitars for example, to constitute a Faraday cage against EMI for the pickups. It is rather expensive though, but you don't need a thick layer. If you're in the US, you can order conductive paint from stewmac.com for instance.
2. The PSU doesn't connect to the case except with the dedicated ground cable, because the PSU - in order to be certified - has to be double shielded, the outer case is not connected to the GND of the power circuit.
3. I don't think that painting the case has a direct impact on the power delivery by the PSU to the components. I would search elsewhere.
4. I would recommend getting some readouts with a multimeter first before drawing conclusions.
I have a multimeter and I don't even know where to begin. I just don't understand why the motherboard has to be grounded to the case. The case should then ground to the PSU completing the circuit, right? If not, how does that work? I had everything plugged in and I hit the power switch and nothing happened. I connected the PSU to another computer in the house and it turned on fine.
Motherboard should not be grounded to the case, the case not being grounded by a normal PSU and the motherboard being grounded through the power connectors.
If a motherboard is grounded to the case and the case isn't separately grounded with a dedicated GND cable (not all PSU's have them), chances are real that you'll have groundloops causing buzzing noise in your audio path, go figure what it will do to the delicate data paths...
A PSU, in order to be certified in most countries, has to be double shielded (the icon with the square in the square on the sticker), which means the outter enclosure of the PSU is not connected to any part of the functional power delivery circuit. That means that you go against that principle by making ground with your motherboard to the case, because the case is obviously connected to the outter shell of the PSU, and the motherboard obviously gets ground from the functional circuit of the PSU. Unless the PSU has a dedicated separate case GND cable (with an eyelet that you can use with one of the casescrews, e.g. a drive bay screw or card retention screw), the case should preferably not get ground. In fact, most mobos come with little insulators for the mobo (the little red rings). If your case is grounded with a dedicated case GND cable (that connects directly and in a galvanically separated fashion to the mains GND inlet), that doesn't matter, but if it's not, it's better to insulate the motherboard from the case to prevent all kinds of strange phenomena, because the case makes GND through direct contact with the outter shell of the PSU which is separately grounded, but obviously a PSU or case can be painted with insulating or capacitative paint, etc... so better be on the safe side and insulate the motherboard from the case by using the insulating rings on the mounting screws. A case is not part of the power circuit, that would never pass certification.
The mobo should not be in contact with the case at all. Most mobo standoffs are non-conductive.
Alright, my mobo is stock out of an HP computer and in the original case there were no standoffs, just humps that raised the mobo. The same goes for the new case. If I do add standoffs the faceplate for the mobo in the back wouldn't work. If it isn't what I thought, do you have any idea why it's not working?