How have I establised a ground for my PC???

[Larry_OHF]

Some of you may remember my missap at causing a small fire when I messed around with trying to plug in a special recepticle. I have fixed this as of today, by having to rewire the hot wire in that area. Now that I have the wires working again I put in a new ordinary recepticle...except I spent $1.48 on this one instead of the cheaper .46¢.

Well guess what? Both surge supressors tell me that as of today, I have a ground for the power! What the heck? There is no ground wire there to give me ground, so where is it coming from? I have one idea, and it may be far-fetched. I have cable coming through this, and the same power that feeds the cable modem feeds the telephone and the computer. Is this giving me the ground? If so, why now, after 5 years of living here?

[Sir Krustin]

Without actually checking things out, I could only guess.

You could try unplugging things one at a time, and seeing if the readings change.

Also, does the receptacle have a ground terminal?

[Bungleau]

When you wired in the new receptacle, did you wire in black, white, and ground? Or just black and white?

If you didn't wire in a ground, then no matter what the surge suppressors tell you, you're not grounded.

[Larry_OHF]

I am sure that there is no ground wire. Only black and white. But as I mentioned...for the past years, I have not seen these lights turned on, and now both of them are saying they detect ground. I think it has something to do with the cable modem...because I have digital phone coming through this modem as well as the internet...and a dial tone works only with a ground...from what the experts tell me.

[Bungleau]

Hmmm... well, I can't tell you more than the experts.

What I do know is that standard phone lines don't have a ground wire. I'm pretty sure that standard coax cables don't either. So I suspect the only place that your cable modem could be picking up a ground is through its plug.

Now, "ground", by definition, means that the circuit runs into the ground somewhere. Somewhere around the house is a grounding rod buried several feet deep (and several feet away from the house itself). It may be just a wire, but I think it's a little more.

It *could* be that when you fried everything [img]smile.gif[/img] , you somehow completed a circuit somewhere that's going to a ground someplace. Where? I don't know. Could be through a loose wire, could be through the ventilation system, could be through a bunch of things.

I'd buy (if you don't already have) a small circuit tester for your outlets. You can get one at a hardware store for less than $5 (less than $2, I think). Plug that into your outlet, because that critter will tell you if the outlet is wired properly, and whether or not there's a ground.

If it comes back and says there's a ground, and you know there's no ground wire.... then I'd seriously look at calling an electrician. Hourly rate out here is less than $50, so it's not too expensive, but I'd have one look at things. If you didn't put in a ground, but there's one there, it must have found one of its own. The question is... where? And how do you want to discover it?

[aleph_null1]

I can spit farther than I trust the ground indicators on a surge protector, Larry.

B's given you good advice. In an old enough house, with an interesting electrical history, these impromptu grounds (if it is actually grounded) do happen, and they're really not that cool. They tend to disappear as abruptly as they appeared, usually at just the wrong time

If you're not too comfortable / experienced with house wiring, I'd shell out the cash for a quick electrician's visit as well ...

[Bungleau]

There's a story (probably on snopes) about a dog who was able to predict when the phone would ring. He'd always bark, and the phone would then go off.

Turned out the dog was chained to the telephone pole, which wasn't grounded. He then got zapped whenever the phone rang, which caused him to bark loudly. Eventually, he'd get zapped enough that he'd pee, and that would *supposedly* complete the circuit and allow the phone to ring. Properly grounding the pole removed his ability (and improved his outlook on life, too [img]smile.gif[/img] ).

Now, I do recall a mythbusters episode from a while back where they tried to figure out if you could get electrocuted from urinating on the third rail of a subway (or something similar). They found you couldn't, so this could also be a myth. But it illustrates a point... I think... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Larry_OHF]

That has to be one of the best stories I have ever heard! Too bad I read it in the PC lab here at school where everyone else is studying for finals. I just now got a lot of ugly looks.

[Bungleau]

Sorry, Larry...