Andrew Erickson wrote:

It sounds as though the generator's neutral leg is not tied to ground at
the generator. The outlet tester isn't actually testing that the ground
prong is anywhere near ground, merely that current can flow between the
hot and the ground leg.

I wasn't aware of that. Thanks.

(In a standard residential setup, the neutral leg is tied to ground at
the main breaker box, and all neutral and ground wires go to the common
neutral/ground bar.

That much I did know. I even knew that the only place the neutral can be
grounded is at the junction box.

The outlet tester would still show the outlet is wired properly even if
the ground leg were not actually connected to ground.)

A test with the outlet tester and an ungrounded outlet confirms that
you're right.

By the way, the surge suppressor will do pretty much nothing to clean up
the generator output power. It's also rather likely that the output is
reasonably clean to begin with; certainly far better than a typical
"modified sine wave" inverter output, which is a combination of a couple
of square waves. A typical computer, with a switching power supply, is
not picky at all about power quality, as the first stage in the power
supply is a rectifier and reservoir capacitor, changing whatever the
input is into (unregulated) high voltage DC power. They run just fine
from the above mentioned modified sine wave inverters, potentially even
a bit more efficiently than from sinusoidal inputs.

I've heard a few anecdotes of generator power damaging televisions and DVD
players. I thought a pair (one on each outlet) of cheap surge protectors
might help.

Anyhow, you could tie the "neutral" leg of the generator output to
ground at the generator, which would be safe provided the generator
frame is actually grounded, and which would make the outlet tester
happier.

Unless it would add safety, I'm not at all worried about bonding the
neutral to ground.

Safer, IMHO, is just using the GFI and not worrying about it
more. Indeed, code permits GFIs to be used on existing ungrounded
circuits to allow three-pronged devices to be plugged in despite the
lack of a safety ground conductor (albeit with certain cautionary
labeling required).

I may do that. One of the reasons I was dead set on proper grounding is
that I knew that the surge protectors can't work without a ground. If the
surge protectors are useless and unneeded, I could leave the ground
connected as is, and just use the inline GFI.

--
Tony Sivori
Due to spam, I'm filtering all Google Groups posters.