[SOLVED (kind of)] Static shock from office chair

[Zairker]

Hello,
a few months ago I bought an office chair for my desk.
Everything was fine until (roughly) the end of March: every time I'm about to sit, I touch the metal body of the chair and I get a static shock (which for some reasons it causes my PC to wake up from sleep mode, too).

This is getting really annoying and regardless on what I do during the day, when I want to sit down, I get static shocked, and I get shivers for the next ~10 seconds.

Is there any ways to fix this?
Thanks in advance!

[𝕎𝔸𝕃𝕋𝔼ℝ]

Put up some sort of cloth i guess

[Zylfrax791]

Some type of ground strap?

[MikeBob2013]

There are 'anti static' mats that can be placed under your office chair. I'd suggest maybe looking around for one (at an office supply or office furniture outlet online).

[Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...]

Maybe you need a humidifier.

Originally posted by MikeBob2013:

There are 'anti static' mats that can be placed under your office chair. I'd suggest maybe looking around for one (at an office supply or office furniture outlet online).

Also a good suggestion and can save your floors/carpet from getting worn.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

do you have a powered electric chair?

[DarkCrystalMethod]

Try with shoes next time, instead of just your socks. maybe its you picking up static charge from the carpet when you approach the desk.

[Xautos]

Good old Luigi Galvani strikes again.

you'll want to touch something to remove the extra static charge in your body, since you might wear shoes with rubber outer tread, there is no way to discharge it other than some part of your body being in close proximity to another person or animal or an object that can discharge, something metal like a typical railing at school or a computer chair base.

some discharges you might not really notice, other discharges you'll feel.

to prevent static charges, stop rubbing yourself on whatever it is to creates that potential. for example you stroke a cat too much and you can generate a charge there, you can hear and feel the discharge, and the cat wont like it.

[Zairker]

Originally posted by MikeBob2013:

There are 'anti static' mats that can be placed under your office chair. I'd suggest maybe looking around for one (at an office supply or office furniture outlet online).

I'll check those out, thanks!

Originally posted by chiefputsilao✖️ping:

do you have a powered electric chair?

No, just a regular one.

Originally posted by DarkCrystalMethod:

Try with shoes next time, instead of just your socks. maybe its you picking up static charge from the carpet when you approach the desk.

I always wear sandals when home, and I don't have any carpets, sorry.

Originally posted by Xautos:

you'll want to touch something to remove the extra static charge in your body,

The thing is that I have already tried to before sitting in my chair, but it didn't change anything...
I think I'm going to check out the anti static mats and see if it solves it.

[Γαῖα]

Originally posted by Zairker:

Originally posted by Xautos:

you'll want to touch something to remove the extra static charge in your body,

The thing is that I have already tried to before sitting in my chair, but it didn't change anything...
I think I'm going to check out the anti static mats and see if it solves it.

Was this point you touched to discharge earthed/grounded as if it wasnt, no wonder it didnt work.

If you have discharged correctly then you need to find out how your chair is receiving charge before wasting money on costly mats and not so costly anti stat straps.

REMEMBER : you stated it only started after a while so find out what changed.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

Originally posted by Zairker:

Hello,
a few months ago I bought an office chair for my desk.
Everything was fine until (roughly) the end of March: every time I'm about to sit, I touch the metal body of the chair and I get a static shock (which for some reasons it causes my PC to wake up from sleep mode, too).

grounded pc case problem.
disassemble your pc and see where the problem is.

[Zairker]

Originally posted by Γαῖα:

Was this point you touched to discharge earthed/grounded as if it wasnt, no wonder it didnt work.

REMEMBER : you stated it only started after a while so find out what changed.

Yes, it was grounded.

The only thing that I can remember that changed is that I have my Xbox One controller plugged via cable into my case USB. The cable is a tad long and it sometimes touches the floor-- but I doubt that's the issue.

Originally posted by chiefputsilao✖️ping:

grounded pc case problem.
disassemble your pc and see where the problem is.

I have this PC since November and never changed anything inside since. I only opened it up twice to clean a bit, but that was in December and February.

[Γαῖα]

Originally posted by Zairker:

Originally posted by Γαῖα:

Was this point you touched to discharge earthed/grounded as if it wasnt, no wonder it didnt work.

REMEMBER : you stated it only started after a while so find out what changed.

Yes, it was grounded.

The only thing that I can remember that changed is that I have my Xbox One controller plugged via cable into my case USB. The cable is a tad long and it sometimes touches the floor-- but I doubt that's the issue.

Well, if you have discharged yourself then the chair is picking up the charge elsewhere.

So tell me, once you get shocked, how quickly is it before it happens again ?

[Mr. Megidramon]

..... find someone else to trick into sitting in the chair before you do, so that they get shocked instead of you?

[Azza ☠]

You might have a faulty USB or device connected to a USB port.

Wake up on LAN or USB is normally enabled by default on the motherboard under the BIOS and/or Windows. If your PC is waking up from sleep due to it, then there's an electrical surge it's detecting, most likely from an USB.

If it's not the carpet, socks, certain clothing, etc... picking up on the static electric, then it might be a device you are touching sending a small current down.

Avoid using a faulty USB port, if you do find one, swap any device using it to another port and make sure any metal of the PC case isn't touching! This is critical to avoid damage, crashes or faults over time. Worst case is the PC starts to refuse to boot up due to that short. If that occurs, just turn off the PC and unplug all USB devices before attempting to start it again.

The metal body of the chair itself isn't the issue, it's rather just grounding you. The PC however should be grounded. There's a rare chance your human body generates electricity itself, building up the static charge, but in most cases it's a flow from something else or rubbing of materials such as clothes, carpet, etc.

[Zairker]

Originally posted by Γαῖα:

Well, if you have discharged yourself then the chair is picking up the charge elsewhere.

So tell me, once you get shocked, how quickly is it before it happens again ?

I don't get shocked when I'm sitting, I get shocked just when I'm about to sit.
I don't exactly know, but I'm going to say every 2 hours or so.

Originally posted by Azza ☠:

Avoid using a faulty USB port, if you do find one, swap any device using it to another port and make sure any metal of the PC case isn't touching! This is critical to avoid damage, crashes or faults over time. Worst case is the PC starts to refuse to boot up due to that short. If that occurs, just turn off the PC and unplug all USB devices before attempting to start it again.

Don't really know how to answer to this, I have everything plugged in the same ports since November except the controller-- I'm going to unplug it for the time being and see if it changes something.

Originally posted by chiefputsilao✖️ping:

grounded pc case problem.
disassemble your pc and see where the problem is.

This morning I took the time to open up my PC and see if something was wrong, didn't see anything suspicious but I still unplugged and plugged back almost every cable.

If the PC isn't grounded well, how can I fix it?
The PSU cable has a ground thingy to it and I have it plugged into a grounded wall socket, so I can't really diagnose the issue here...

What is most likely to be the issue? The chair, the PC or something I didn't do correctly?