On 1/4/2013 10:25 AM, David Nelsen wrote: > I agree- Take a volt meter if you have one and perform a voltage > check from ground to hot, ground to neutral then hot to neutral. > Neutral is the white wire connected to the left larger vertical prong > and hot should be connected to the right smaller vertical prong. > (Looking at the outlet) Also you may want to do a voltage check > between computer chassis and ground. If you dont have a volt meter I > strongly suggest picking up a cheap one or atleast getting a polarity > checker from menards or the hardware store. You could have a problem > where the outlet is mis wired and hot and neutral are reversed. This > can present a transparent problem yet could be dangerous. Good Luck > > > > On Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 10:19 AM, Ryan Coleman <ryanjcole at me.com > <mailto:ryanjcole at me.com>> wrote: > > On 1/4/2013 10:04 AM, Smith, Craig A (MN14) wrote: > > my 9yo daughter looks shocked and says the computer buzzed > her. i touch what she touched, floor grate and computer > chassis, and buzzo. so perhaps improper grounding might > be a factor in mobo deaths? > > > Many years ago, I got a shock from the metal chassis of my > dad's reel-to-reel tape deck. He said "unplug and plug it in > the other way" (this was before the days polarized plugs). I > tried this and it worked! > > The explanation was that there was a high-impedance short > between the power transformer and the chassis. Plugging it in > the other way moved the short closer to neutral (grounded at > the fuse-box and the utility pole). > > Assuming you have a polarized plug, you might check your > outlet. You can buy a 3-led tester at the hardware store for > less than $5. > > If you're using a UPS, then that may be at fault. > > > I assumed (shame on me) that by "tripp lite" that mentioned in his > next email was a tester of some sort... but I would think that > along your thought line there that testing on another outlet would > work just as well? Extensions suck but I would recommend that > everyone have at least one heavy duty extension cord in their > homes of 25-50 feet in length. They are worth every penny (I have > four - but two are in my car for my day job). > This is a really easy test - it allowed me to discover that NONE of the "grounded" outlets in my apartment were, indeed, grounded... which is fine except for the fact that my UPS must have a ground... The landlord - upon learning of this problem - has agreed to get an outlet in each room properly grounded... he doesn't want to deal with my insurance company when I claim the explosion of battery acid from my UPS after a lightning strike (a little over dramatic, I admit, but I was amazed to find that out of 20 wall outlets 0 were actually grounded - and 15 of the plug pairs had a grounding pin... and a few of the outlets are still the cloth insulated wire...) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20130104/8a37027d/attachment-0001.html>