H
Howard Knight
Guest
First, let me tell you that I'm a retard when it comes to electronic
stuff. Anyway...
I was fiddling around behind my computer and got a nice shock. I'm
trying to figure out this problem and am hoping you folks could
help me out.
I get the shock when I touch any part of the back of my computer or
wires, and also touch the metal part of the cable that comes in and
connects to my cable modem. Here's the deal:
I live in an older house that is not grounded. The ground prong on
the outlets isn't connected to ground or anything else. Also, I've
determined that the coax cable coming in to my cable modem is
grounded. Somthing seems to be making the ground prong on my outlet
hot. I've narrowed down the problem to my power strip. I've
unplugged everything from my outlet and I check the outlet for
voltage. Neutral to hot gives me 110V. Neutral to ground give me
nothing (actually, for some odd reason, there does seem to be a
slight voltage (less than 2V). Hot to ground also gives me nothing.
As one would expect.
Now, if I plug in a power strip and do the same check on one of the
outlets on the power strip, I get: neutral to hot 110V, neutral to
ground around 60V and hot to ground around 60V. Is this right?
I've checked this with two power strips and I get the same results.
What would cause this? Is the polarity on my outlet wrong? Or,
am I just a dummy and am misintepreting what is going on. This
misterious 60V is what give me the shock.
Howard
stuff. Anyway...
I was fiddling around behind my computer and got a nice shock. I'm
trying to figure out this problem and am hoping you folks could
help me out.
I get the shock when I touch any part of the back of my computer or
wires, and also touch the metal part of the cable that comes in and
connects to my cable modem. Here's the deal:
I live in an older house that is not grounded. The ground prong on
the outlets isn't connected to ground or anything else. Also, I've
determined that the coax cable coming in to my cable modem is
grounded. Somthing seems to be making the ground prong on my outlet
hot. I've narrowed down the problem to my power strip. I've
unplugged everything from my outlet and I check the outlet for
voltage. Neutral to hot gives me 110V. Neutral to ground give me
nothing (actually, for some odd reason, there does seem to be a
slight voltage (less than 2V). Hot to ground also gives me nothing.
As one would expect.
Now, if I plug in a power strip and do the same check on one of the
outlets on the power strip, I get: neutral to hot 110V, neutral to
ground around 60V and hot to ground around 60V. Is this right?
I've checked this with two power strips and I get the same results.
What would cause this? Is the polarity on my outlet wrong? Or,
am I just a dummy and am misintepreting what is going on. This
misterious 60V is what give me the shock.
Howard