Mark Moulding wrote:

I knew that would raise some rabble. Yes, of course I recognize the
potential (so to speak) problems with opening the safety ground connection.
However, a few interesting points exist in this particular situation:

- The device is a laptop, and there is no direct connection from the ground
pin through the (double-insulated) AC adapter/charger to the laptop chassis,
so it's really not much of a "safety" ground.

- There are two small value (10 nF) caps from each side of the power line to
the ground terminal inside the adapter, presumably as an RFI suppression
measure.

- All of the audio equipment involved was plugged into the *same* outlet
strip - it seems highly unlikely that there'd be much of ground loop within
the 6" or so of 16 gauge wire separating the plugs

- Finally (and this is really no excuse), my house is old enough that I'm
not convinced that all of the three prong outlets have their ground pin
connected to anything at all. It's not so old that it's knob-and-tube, but
the outlets were originally two prong, and I think that many were just
replaced with three-prong as placebos, without pulling a ground wire. At
least the garage (with the concrete floor and the power tools) is wired
correctly...
--
Mark

Hi...

As a side issue, there are testers available for only a couple of
dollars that you can plug into your outlets that will (by way of three
neon lamps) easily tell you whether or not ground exists, and if
hot/neutral are reversed.

Just mentioned it wondering if it might not increase your comfort level.

Ken