Floating grounds caused by breaking the ground plug from the power cord

[Daniel Branconnier]

Here's a situation that I've encountered numerous times. I'm called to fix someone's computer and when I touch the computer's case/tower, I can feel an alternating current probably in the range of 50 to 60 volts. When I go to check the computer's power cord, I see that they broke off the ground prong to make it fit into an extension cord.

Let's analyze what this does:

1.) The computer's power supply no longer has a ground thus creating a 'floating ground' in the PC's case and grounding through anything attached to the PC.

This will eventually damage the other devices connected to the PC (printers, modems, etc...) Also, this can cause an electromagnetic field around your PC which will corrupt data on magnetic media (hard drives, floppies, etc...)

Furthermore, this can be dangerous because it can lead to fire and or risk of electrocution.


*****PLEASE DO NOT BREAK THE GROUD PRONG FROM ANY APPLIANCE***** IT IS THERE FOR A REASON!*****