You folks are all lucky. I have the same chair, but the ESD problem didn't manifest as screen flicker - it manifested as my work laptop bluescreening about a minute after me getting up from the chair. I wouldn't have guessed the cause of not for some random HN comment some half a year ago. The solution for now is that I don't use external screens with my laptop. One of these days I'll find a better-isolated display cable.
Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
31–40 of 214 posts
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#32I have the same problem, but don't care enough to buy a new chair. It isn't that annoying
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#33I once had the problem that running make with too many parallel jobs (-j) would change my keyboard layout. The machine was some laptop mainboard glued to the backside of my monitor, and the USB socket came out at the top of the mainboard. On its way down, the USB cable for the keyboard passed across the whole mainboard. On high load, the mainboard created enough interference to cause the connection to reset, re-hotpl…
This is the greatest thing I've read today.
I love when software and the real world have entirely unexpected interactions. And by love, I usually mean hate, especially when I'm the one that has to debug them.
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#34I have another version of this problem. Almost every time I get out of my chair, my Schiit Modi DAC disappears for a moment and my music stops, then starts again a few seconds later as the DAC comes back online.
I spent a fair amount of effort trying to figure that one out. Thought it was loose cables, something, but no. I don't have a Markus chair, but my Steelcase Gesture is still capable of making a pretty good amount of static electricity. Once in a while when I stand up if my boom microphone is too close I'll shock myself on it, and most of the time I have to reboot things after that. Haven't permanently killed anything yet, thankfully.
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#35This reminds me of a story about sticky tapes emitting x-rays when pulled.
I submitted the link here, it’s interesting in its own right: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35744187
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#36I had a job in university testing breakdown voltages in various flavors of Kapton. IIRC the idea was to see how suitable they would be for spacecraft construction where they would be exposed to high voltages from solar wind. We could always tell when a test run was complete because the EM interference from >10 kV suddenly shorting to ground caused our computers to freeze. (Thankfully they still recorded the data we needed.)
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#37Wow. Maybe this is what's been happening with my screen. When I stand up, it resets. I figured it was ESD but had no idea from what or how. I have a secretlab chair though.
I also have a Secretlab but I have an ESD mat on my work surface which is grounded with a clip at the corner, and I tend to put a hand on it to stabilize myself as I stand up, which has the side effect of dissipating any charges as they're generated.
I also do electronic assembly work at this desk so it's sort of a no-brainer to have the mat, I just had no idea it was also saving me from other weirdness!
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#38Previously:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21978004 [13 comments]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22036652 [2 comments]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21976814 [1 comment]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32515662 [0 comments]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22014012 [0 comments]
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35737780 [0 comments]
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#39Whoa, I stand at my desk, so no chair, but I think I have the an issue with a similar cause.
I have a cordless phone charger where plugging it in sometimes causes my screen to blink black. Since I only unplug/plug it when rearranging cabling, I've never bothered to investigate further.
Re: Check if your IKEA chair is compatible with your screen
#40I have exactly the same issue with an Embody chair from Herman Miller. Not sure if it is the fabric or the piston, but definitely suspected static since I got the chair. The screen does not seem to age prematurely because of this.
I have an Embody chair but no such issues with my 27" monitors.