So, I built my grandad a PC a while back, and its never been quite right. Blue Screens, that I've not been able to diagnose, theres no pattern to them, they are completly radnom, PC can run for ages, then BSOD, other times, it can BSOD 7 times in a row when trying to start, then work fine. Memory is fine, PSU is fine. The motherboard is an AsRock Board, and I had a feeling that this was the problem, so I've got a new MSI board ready to go in. However, the Case, which has a removeable motherbaord tray, has built in standoffs, but, they're not brass, they're aluminium/steel whatever the tray is. I can't see why any case manufacturer would do this, I've tried nsulating them with paper washers etc, but you can't really do it. Heres a pic of the motherboard tray. Any ideas on what I could do easily to modify it or to stop any potential shorts? I can't use brass standoffs as the motherboard would then be raised too high.
I don't know if it would work, but instead of using brass stand offs (6mm (ish)) can you use copper washers (>1mm (ish)), so that way the motherboard wouldn't be raised off to far, and hopefully wouldn't short. You could probably pick some up from a DIY shops, something like Focus, B&Q etc If you can't do this let me know, and ill try and think a bit more lol Gaz
I cant see it making any difference anyway, as the areas on the Mobo that they attach to are isolated from the rest of the circuitry. I doubt that's the cause of your BSOD. Brass is hardly a great insulator
Why would using a copper washer, or even brass standoffs make any difference anyway? I thought brass didn't conduct electricity, but my dad has just told, and showed me that it does. Why the hell are brass standoffs used if it conducts electricity.
after looking at the picture for a bit longer I can see the resembelence to my case. My case didn't have a slide out tray but inside it is very similar. I have a micro ATX mobo in it currently, and the case came with 6 stand offs. My mobo had 6 holes to screw into the case, 2 of which when lined up are over those raised dome like bits (like on yours in the picture) however the other 4 had to be installed with the raisers. Im not quite sure if thats right, but as I only got 6 stand offs, and its a full size case, I was guessing that the other 2 left over were for use for a full size ATX mobo. So far ive never had a problem with the mobo, and ive had it in this case now for around 3 months. I did start a post over on the old custom PC forums about it, and they said it was fine, and that I wasn't suppose to have a stand off on every single one, only the ones that are lower. Hope this helps Gaz
This is a completely wild guess, but maybe they make the electricity travel out onto other parts of the case, and so not up into the mobo? ^^^ im probably 100% wrong on that
but the standoffs are still touching the mobo, so would make no difference. After all these years, I thought I understood why brass stand-offs were used, but now, I can't see the reasoning behind it if brass conducts electricity.
The standoffs conduct electricity, but if you look at where they touch the motherboard you'll see that no wired connect to them, so no electrical connections. They simply hold the mobo off the tray. The molded standoffs should correspond with the holes in your motherboard, so just use them. If there is one that doesn't correspond to a hole, just cover it in electrical tape (or duct tape) as that wont conduct electricity, and will prevent any shorting. fyi, all metals conduct electricity, from sodium to lead.
The reason stand-offs are used is because the holes in the mobo are isolated from the circuitry of the board. if you didn't have stand-offs all the end connections and soldered points would simply be connected to the case therefore would short. It makes no difference what the stand-offs are made out of im guessing hard brass is used because its a harder than the screws you put in therefore the teeth of the standoff are preserved its also cheap to make as it has a low melting point therfore needs less energy to mold.
Adam, you beat me to it. If you look underneath you mobo you will see solder from where the various chips etc were attached. No doubt the you don't want these touching the case as the power going through them is likely to cause a short. You will also notice that the mounting holes on the motherboard have a ring around them, isolating them from the rest of the board. So as long as all your standoffs line up with these rings on the mobo and not the soldered places under the motherboard you should be fine. Any that don't could be and are likely to cause a short could ground off (though this may increase the flex in the board when plugging in cables etc).
oh, I seee (said the blind man). Its simply to stop other parts of the motherboard that do carry electricity from touching the tray. The dimples do all line up with the holes etc, I just thought that the standoffs were used to insulate the motherbaord (directly because the standoffs didn't conduct), but they just insulate it indirectly by holding the bits that are elec off the tray. I see now. Thank you very much. Is there any reason why Brass is used for standoffs?
Why would you want to insulate them? As long as they match the new MB stand-off positions (which they should if ATX) and they don’t interfere elsewhere on the board all is good, don’t forget brass is conductive too. Stand-offs help earth the motherboard through its earth PCB to reduce IR etc.
if you r woried about them just put the stuff you put on the end leg of you chair to stop contact as they are bit of cooton effectively
Actually the solder "rings" around the mounting holes are not insulated from the circuitry, they are grounded. So the motherboard can also ground through the case directly to the PSU. Just cleared some confusion up.
Tis true... but still isolated from the mobo's circuits in as much as you won't short anything out by using metallic standofs.
