Question:
Earthing Problem with laptop?
Alex
2013-06-20 11:58:44 UTC
Hi, I bought a Asus KJ55VJ laptop recently and its having a aluminium palm rest. but when i am charging the laptop there light shock all over this aluminium palm rest.. the charger does not have a earth pin. its just 2 pin. i wanted to know if this is caused due to my laptop fault or with the power supply problem. i found one interesting thing.. when i plugged the laptop with its charger attached to the socket, its having shock even when the switch is off.. but as soon as i take the chargers plug off the socket.. the earthing stop.. can anyone tell me why this is happening and what i need to do and if it would damage my battery or not..
Five answers:
Sullivan
2013-06-22 01:32:23 UTC
It will not damage your battery.



My guess is that what you are feeling is what's called "touch current." Many electrical devices (switch-mode power supplies especially, which your power brick (charger) is), particularly ungrounded ones, employ noise filtering or shielding capacitors that are connected directly from the chassis ground to the AC neutral line... which, with an ungrounded and unpolarized power cord, or with a miswired AC outlet, can become the line to ground. And the "ground" in the PSU does get connected to "ground" in the laptop. Which is apparently connected to your aluminum wrist rest, probably again for shielding purposes.



A small amount of reactive AC current will flow through such capacitors and if the "ground" isn't actually grounded, some people can feel it. It often seems like a "fuzzy" sensation when you move a finger over the metal. Some people can't feel it - they have a higher threshold for perceiving electrical current.



"Touch current" is required to be under certain limits by safety regs. These limits are generally above the threshold of sensation (hence your being able to feel it) but well below the level that would pose a shock hazard. As equipment ages, the "touch current" sometimes gets worse. But there is almost always so little available current that if you measure the voltage with a high-impedance digital voltmeter you'll get one reading, often half the line voltage, but try it with a lower-impedance analog DMM and you'll get a much lower reading. This is indicative of a very high impedance path for the "touch current", which means it *probably* is not a safety issue.



Still, it's not the most pleasant thing.



One simple fix: If your power plug is nonpolarized, just reverse it in the power outlet. See, the usual offender here is that the shield capacitor, which is supposed to go from chassis ground to AC neutral, is going to AC line (hot) instead. But if you can reverse your plug in the AC outlet that easily, there's no guarantee it will always be plugged in the right way.



A sure fix is to ground your power supply. If its AC power inlet connector allows for a grounding pin (i.e. if it has three or more prongs), buy an AC cord for it that includes a ground prong. If you can't do that, buy a compatible power supply that DOES have a grounded AC cord.
saylors
2017-01-21 02:21:02 UTC
Laptop Grounding
ayaz
2016-09-21 22:54:33 UTC
Try changing the power cord (that connect mains with your AC adapter). It solved the problem for me in two different laptops. It is not very expensive either. My laptops too were with two pin plug. I never needed the third one to resolve earthing. I am 100% sure that faulty power cord causes this.
ducayne
2016-12-29 19:54:17 UTC
i've got had issues downloading Google Earth myself. Everytime i attempted to do it, the laptop switched itself off and began to reboot itself. i've got been counseled by making use of somebody who's a whizz with computers that the project is with Google Earth and not with my laptop.
2014-09-29 11:46:27 UTC
Hi,

You can download Google Earth for free here http://bit.ly/1p6gdm4



Google Earth is a kind of 3D interactive atlas. You’ll be able to see what every corner of the world looks like.

Regards


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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