No. The idea is to get the wire to ground. The cold water pipes into your building are connected to a ground rod which goes 3-4 feet into the earth.
It sounds as if your home does not have separately grounded electrical wiring (I assume you live in the US). So your outlets don't have a separate ground, and therefore the faceplate screw (which is screwed into the body of the outlet) will not serve the purpose.
I can't answer regarding whether problem will get worse, since I don't know what the problem is. Personally, I would not put much money into that receiver, unless you want to learn how to do basic repairs yourself...which is a significant undertaking, and would require, at minimum:
- Time spent learning basic electronics
- A multimeter
- A soldering tool and associated materials (solder, desoldering braid, etc)
- Parts (after diagnosing the problem)
Some folks with basic soldering skills will just start putting new parts in, hoping that they are lucky enough to replace the correct ones. Often referred to as "shotgunning" the problem. Opinions vary, of course, but I don't think that's an effective approach.
The one other thing you might do is open up the unit and assure that any internal grounding points are good (secure, not corroded, with good connectivity). I looked for a schematic for that unit, but could not find one...so cannot guide you as to where those points are. Also, upon opening it up, you could take good pics of the internal boards and wiring and post them. This would allow me/others to at least look for obvious failure signs (leaking capacitors, burned resistors, etc). However, failures/faults often show no visible evidence.
If you had the skills and wanted to try the shotgun approach, the place to start would be a rebuild of the power supply and filter cap(s). Probably $20 in parts, plus all of the soldering materials (plus the skills to remove the old parts and put the new ones in).
One other question...do you get any sense of shock or tingling when touching metal cabinet, knobs, etc?
