PC problems

[Evil Elvis]

I have an HTPC computer in my bedroom.  I was readjusting the mattress and bedspread, when I accidentally bumped the power knob on the front of the case, and heard a static discharge go off.  The PC now refuses to boot.

Pressing the power button does nothing.  When I unplug the power cord, wait a few seconds for the capacitors to drain, and plug it back it, it attempts to start (cpu fan spins, power source fan spins, mobo lights turn on), but it shuts down after a second or two before the bios posts.

Any guesses as to what I've probably fried?  What can I do to ground my PC better to prevent this from happening again?

[Venkman]

This sounds like what plagued me back in April. Turned out that I fried just about everything, but the first thing that went was the PSU then the mobo. Have a spare PSU kicking around?

[Trippy]

Sounds like the MB or CPU.

Are your outlets grounded?

[Evil Elvis]

Yeah, I have a spare PSU.  430 watt Thermaltake.  That should be powerful enough to drive it (3ghz dual core AMD, 1 hd, 1 dvdrom, on board ati 3200hd gpu).  That was the first thing I was going to try tomorrow.

My power outlets are all 3-pronged, but I live in an apartment, so I've no idea where the ground runs to.

[Trippy]

My power outlets are all 3-pronged, but I live in an apartment, so I've no idea where the ground runs to.

Are you using a power strip that has a ground indicator light?

[Evil Elvis]

No.

I'm using an HTPC case (looks like a stereo receiver).  I'm thinking the front panel isn't grounded to the case well, which is why it fried my PC.  Maybe I should run a wire from the panel to the case to act as a ground?