X Dreamer II Case ESD problem

[TheOldMan]

I purchased a boutique PC
P4 3.2
1GB Ram
2 - 80 GB Raid 0 SATA drives
X Dreamer ii Case
Intel pb875 mb

I returned the first when every time I turned it on, if I had the slinghtest ESD on the metalic power button, the bios would clear and the system wouldn't boot.

I recieved a completely new system but the manufacturer wouldn't change the case type and I have a similar problem only with this system the ESD can actually start the system up. I've got a new surge protector and have checked the connections but can't find any obvious shorts. I think the X Dreamer Case design with the metal front with LED temperature sensor is prone to this ESD weakness. Going to try to get a replacement again. A real pain. It could have been a great system with 2 months of messing around with this problem. If anyone has had a similar problem with an X Dreamer case I'd like to give a clue to my vendor. Thanks.

[Dax_Brandy]

why not ground your case.. connect a wire on the case and connect the other end to earth ground. in that way electrostatic charges are discharge to ground properly.

good luck.

[Xinfinitum]

Last December I purchased a computer from CyberPower with the X Dreamer Case.

I gave it to my parents for a Christmas Gift. They use the computer minimally so it took awhile to figure out what was going on with it.

It kept inexplicably rebooting. After trying to figure out if it was a driver problem or a memory problem I had them run it for several days in Safe Mode, using it as they normally would.

Because it kept running for several days they never physically touched the machine.

When I went over to do further testing I touched the front temperature guage and the system crashed and rebooted.

At that point I knew we had an engineering design flaw regarding ESD with the Dreamer case. The scenario closely matched the problems I had with the Digital Alpha Server 2000, 2gig machine, back in the mid 90's.

After removing the front panel along with all the wiring to the power and LEDs, temp guage, USB ports, etc. it still crashed when a static charge was applied to the metal of the front of the chassis.

It has finally gone back to Cyber Power and I picked up an inexpensive Dell for my parents instead.

The X Dreamer case needs to be re-engineered for static problems. My advice is to avoid purchasing a system with that case.

[TheOldMan]

How'd you get them to take it back? They replaced mine once and now are taking the postion that I need to pay the shipping and they will pay the labor to replace the case but they won't allow a return since its past the original 30 day return period. I haven't pushed on that since getting a new case may solve the problem but I'd love to know who you spoke to to get the return option.
Thanks

[Xinfinitum]

Originally I was going to allow them to take it back and fix it.

Although I wanted them to replace it with a completely new computer and case because I didn't trust the computer because of possible static damage to CMOS that could blow later on down the line, they refused to give me a new computer and would try to fix it instead.

I had ordered another computer from CyberPower, my fourth in all and when it arrived it had two - two inch - cracks in the front bezel, a metal cased fan had fallen off the motherboard and was sitting on the video board, some kind of connector had fallen out of the machine and few other defects.

It was good thing I did a visual inspection first because if I turned it on it would have shorted out the video board.

I became very upset because I have been without a computer for a month and my parents were without theirs since January.

So I called my credit card company, told them what had been going on and they put the funds in dispute and said they would resolve this and I wouldn't need to pay for them.

I called Cyberpower, told them what was wrong with the second computer and that I was finished dealing with them and that the fund were now in dispute and that they would need to deal with the credit card company.

I also sent a fax and two emails to cyberpower describing everything that had occured and that I was rejecting both computers.

CyberPower backed issued me the second RMA at that point The first RMA had already been issued before for the repair but now they can keep the machine.

UPS picked up one of the RMA's yesterday and I just got the second RMA label from Fedex today to send back the second machine.

Xinfinitum

[TheOldMan]

Wow. You really had a nasty one. Almost makes me feel a little better and your experience is consistent with mine except that since mine was a December gift I don't have a chance to put the funds in dispute. Already checked that. I'll just hope that rebuilding in a new case gets the job done or at least all the parts continue to arrive in useable form. Then if the new case has the same problems I can at least buy a case and build a system out myself.

Thanks