A user bought a new gaming PC, but he constantly received annoying electric shocks. He ultimately found the source of the problem in a household appliance.
Anyone buying a new gaming PC is initially excited about the new hardware and – in most cases – significantly more performance. However, a user had little joy at the start of his gaming career.
Because with every touch of his computer, he received severe electric shocks. He eventually found the solution to the problem in his air purifier, which he had plugged in the same room.
Air purifiers are supposed to ensure clean air but instead cause annoying problems
What exactly happened? A user invested money and bought a new gaming PC and new peripherals. But a few weeks later, the problems started. He writes in his post on reddit:
A few weeks later I touch the metal button and get an electric shock, no big deal, I think, probably a static charge. But it happens again and again, pretty big shocks. I work in the automotive industry and am a computer technician; I often get electric shocks from random circuits.
At first, he suspected that it must be his keyboard. But he also received an electric shock when he unplugged his headset from the PC. And the headset was connected via USB. He then feared that either his power supply was faulty or that his apartment was not properly grounded.
He checked the grounding of his keyboard with a multimeter – everything seemed to be in order there.
Eventually, he did replace his power supply. However, the problems persisted. As another step, he switched off all electrical devices in the room and plugged each one in individually in combination with his computer.
Here he found that the culprit was the air purifier. Because the user uses an ionized air purifier for his room where the computer is located:
Well, these little ionized particles probably settled on my PC, power supply, and so on, causing some of the weird little shocks I received.
In the meantime, he has turned off the ionization feature of the air purifier. Since then, he has had no more problems.
Ionized air purifiers and their usefulness are controversial
Ionized air purifiers are considered controversial tools. The air purifiers are said to significantly reduce dust as the ions bind the dust. However, the problem is that ozone is produced in the process. The reactive gas ozone is germicidal but can irritate the airways even in small amounts. Because of its germicidal effect, the gas is mainly used in industry.
Furthermore, it has not yet been 100% proven how effective ionization actually is and how the feature affects viruses (via umweltbundesamt.de).
A well-known tech YouTuber has also shown that you shouldn’t use every cable in your computer. Because in the worst case, you not only damage your gaming PC, but you could even be facing a residential fire:
YouTuber shows how you can ruin your gaming PC with a single cable
