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> 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).
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
> tclug-list at mn-linux.org
> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/**mailman/listinfo/tclug-list<http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20130104/9c12662d/attachment.html>