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Possible bad ground wire, please help
I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service
updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
wrote in message ... I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD There's just not enough information to guess at it. I would have the neutral conductor feeding the building checked, as well as the circuit neutral conductors in the panel, and check the integrity of the grounding system. Get an outlet tester and see what it tells you |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
wrote in message ... I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? Reverse polarity comes to mind. Something shorting to something ungrounded is a possibility. The fact that the service was upgraded may be a clue. Is this a very old house with knob and tube wiring? You need to start opening up receptacles and your circuit breaker panel and check to make sure that everything is wired correctly. I assume that there are no problems with your computer or a power strip. Many years ago I had a customer complain to me that he kept getting shocks in his master bathroom when he touched the medicine cabinet. When I first checked it there was no problem. I checked it again before I left and there was 120 volts. The problem turned out to be in the other bathroom. The Romex feed into that switch box had the ground disconnected and the BX cable that went to the light in that bathroom was shorted to the armor. When someone turned on that switch everything became hot, but the breaker did not trip because the feed wire ground was disconnected. I guess someone figured that was causing the breaker to trip and it was an easy fix to just disconnect it. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
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Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
wrote in message ... On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. I think that you should call in an expert. You have an electrical hazard and you are asking how to use a voltmeter. Get a pro before one of those shocks goes through your heart muscle. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
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Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:47:48 -0500, "John Grabowski"
wrote: wrote in message ... On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. I think that you should call in an expert. You have an electrical hazard and you are asking how to use a voltmeter. Get a pro before one of those shocks goes through your heart muscle. Seconded. The first thing you can do that will be free is call the power company. They will check their connections and you can be prepared to tighten the connections in your panel while the power company has the power off. The guy from the power company may point out something that is obviously wrong. He will most likely be standing there watching you anyway. :) He is getting paid pretty good to be leaning on the wall watching you too.. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
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Possible bad ground wire, please help
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Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:27:39 -0500, metspitzer
wrote: On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 17:47:48 -0500, "John Grabowski" wrote: wrote in message ... On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. I think that you should call in an expert. You have an electrical hazard and you are asking how to use a voltmeter. Get a pro before one of those shocks goes through your heart muscle. Seconded. The first thing you can do that will be free is call the power company. They will check their connections and you can be prepared to tighten the connections in your panel while the power company has the power off. The guy from the power company may point out something that is obviously wrong. He will most likely be standing there watching you anyway. :) He is getting paid pretty good to be leaning on the wall watching you too.. try the voltmeter from watever you tough to a known good ground (copper water pipe - cold, hard water if you have more than one, and check for voltage. if there is no reading above about 4 or 5, plug in a few teakettles in the room and see if it gets better or worse. At this time of year, with central heating running (at least here in Southern Ontario) the RH drops like a stone.. I'm maintaining 30% and my house is pretty tight. If the shocking is less, it's most likely static. If it stays the same or gets worse, it's likely a problem. The thing with static is, YOU are the voltage source, relative to ground, and the high voltage surge going back through whatever electrical item you touch, CAN get back int some comouters and cause a reset. You didn't say if you ever get shocks from anything that is either non-electric or not plugged in. I DID have a real strange one years ago at our car club. It was a converted chicken barn with steel siding and a partial concrete floor re-enforced with fencewire mesh. We started getting shocks when we touched the siding, and I got a REAL dandy when using my old 2 wire 8" hand grinder and my knee hit an exposed chunk of re-enforcement wire. Then I was hot on the trail. Found the CB radio sitting on top of the fridge in the club room had fried it's power supply - and it was pumping 115 volts out the ground grade of the antenna - which was also fastened to a metal bracket screwed to the siding. Pitched the CB and no mare shocks. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:51:53 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote: wrote: On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. Please explain what you mean when you write, "when a shock goes off"? Do you hear a noise or do electric lights flicker when that description applies? Do you have to be touching just METAL parts of those "anythings" which are plugged in? i.e. do you also get a shock when touching non-metalic portions of them? I don't think I'm going to be the only one here somewhat baffled by your problem. If you feel a shock while touching something while sitting in a nonconductive chair, there must be one heck of a high voltage present on the things you touch. Jeff Static - Only option if that is the case, even with Euro power (220 50hz) |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
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Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Dec 1, 3:01*pm, wrote:
I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. *At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. *I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. *When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. *At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. *Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. *What is causing this? *Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? * *any ideas will help, thank you for your time * * * * * * Bill in SD The electric co should come out fast and for free, find the guy that did the upgrade, the city will have the permit on file and may send the inspector to help. A new service should have no issues , the guy that did the upgrade waranties his work. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:52:48 -0600, bud--
wrote: metspitzer wrote: On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:26:03 -0500, wrote: On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:51:53 -0500, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. Please explain what you mean when you write, "when a shock goes off"? Do you hear a noise or do electric lights flicker when that description applies? Do you have to be touching just METAL parts of those "anythings" which are plugged in? i.e. do you also get a shock when touching non-metalic portions of them? I don't think I'm going to be the only one here somewhat baffled by your problem. If you feel a shock while touching something while sitting in a nonconductive chair, there must be one heck of a high voltage present on the things you touch. Jeff Static - Only option if that is the case, even with Euro power (220 50hz) OP says...... When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. This is not static. If it happens to everything, then the service has to be the cause. The OP has no way of knowing the voltage drops. Static discharge could cause a crash and reboot. Less likely touching other things in the room would cause that. I would include static as a possible cause. The OP hasn't said he had 2 contact points to get a shock, which would be necessary for a power line problem. Could be he does have 2 contact points and isn't describing them. Information provided is minimal. I would think anything accessible with a cell phone charger would be isolated from H-N-G. Could be a troll. Or a very strange problem. One more question for the Op....You say you installed a UPS, and it didn't stop the problem. A UPS would certainly stop the computer from resetting no matter what is going on in your house. If your computer is still rebooting on the UPS, the problem is with the computer. The other things you describe sound very much like static. |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
Troll. notice the lack of a comeback by the OP
s wrote in message ... I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
Electric personality??? "Steve Barker DLT" wrote in message ... Troll. notice the lack of a comeback by the OP s wrote in message ... I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:44:22 -0500, metspitzer
wrote: On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:26:03 -0500, wrote: On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:51:53 -0500, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: On Dec 1, 3:59 pm, Jeff Wisnia wrote: wrote: I just recently moved into a house that had all the electrical service updated. At first things seemed to work, lately this has changed. I am getting small shocks more than i ever did, its stronger than a static shock. When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. At first I thought this was a computer issue until I had it reset without laying a finger on it by getting a shock from the cell phone charger. Any shock I receive in the room its in will cause the computer to reset. What is causing this? Bad ground? The wiring is in wrong? any ideas will help, thank you for your time Bill in SD Assuming this is not a troll..... It might help if you told us what you were doing or touching and what you were standing on and wearing on your feet when you get those shocks. Jeff -- Jeffry Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE) The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnig It happens when I touch anything in the room when a shock goes off, cell phone charger, anything plugged in, sitting or standing doesn't matter.. i just added in a battery backup to try and get around the drops, no luck there. I do have a good volt meter, how would i use this to check the ground in the basement ground system? I also do not know what wiring was in this house before, but it all was ripped out and replaced with new wiring and new circut breaker box from the old style screw in breaker box. Please explain what you mean when you write, "when a shock goes off"? Do you hear a noise or do electric lights flicker when that description applies? Do you have to be touching just METAL parts of those "anythings" which are plugged in? i.e. do you also get a shock when touching non-metalic portions of them? I don't think I'm going to be the only one here somewhat baffled by your problem. If you feel a shock while touching something while sitting in a nonconductive chair, there must be one heck of a high voltage present on the things you touch. Jeff Static - Only option if that is the case, even with Euro power (220 50hz) OP says...... When this happens, it drops the voltage enough to restart my computer. This is not static. If it happens to everything, then the service has to be the cause. If he's drawing enough current to drop the voltage on his computer to less than the required 87 volts or whatever the switcher requires to run, he wouldn't be standing, much less typing on a computer. Do his lights dim too????? |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
Steve Barker DLT wrote: Troll. notice the lack of a comeback by the OP Could be dead from trolling newsgroups for answers instead of calling an electrician... |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
On Dec 1, 10:24*pm, wrote:
On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:27:39 -0500, metspitzer wrote: .... * try the voltmeter from ... Modern volt meters are not a good choice. All you need is to pick up some induction and you get a reading, even on a totally deal line. An old analog volt meter may help, but I have to agree with many of the others, this is time to get a pro, or at least someone knowledgeable working on it and not the average homeowner as there are too many possible little known dangerous situations. - Show quoted text - |
Possible bad ground wire, please help
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