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Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

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Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#31

Post by nucleardog »

KIFulgore wrote: post #20
MisterTea wrote: post #15

Might want to increase humidity. In ESD rooms the humidity is controlled and kept high to reduce static build up. to add: > In my particular case, my chair wheels are made out of plastic (non-conductive), so my solution was to “ground” my chair by adding a metallic chain from the chair to my room floor. I got the idea from reddit. The chain grounded chair is used all the time in ESD rooms. The floors in these rooms u…

This. I had a huge problem with static shocking my desk in the dry winter air, causing my monitor to blank out for a few seconds. A small, quiet ultrasonic humidifier completely eliminated the problem. On a side note, distilled water is highly recommended with ultrasonic humidifiers. Heat-based devices evaporate solely the water and leave mineral deposits behind. Ultrasonics create tiny droplets _along with the disso…

> Hard tap water or mineralized drinking water will coat your work area in chalk-like dust.

Also, y'know, your lungs. Deep inside your lungs.

Running tap water in an ultrasonic humidifer's going to spike the particulate pollution (PM1/2.5/10) throughout your entire house by hundreds of ug/m^3. And it seems that children are particularly prone to inhaling this stuff and having it deposited in their lungs (~2x more particles and ~3.5x more mass).

They really shouldn't be used with anything except distilled water. The things should come with a continuity tester that disables them if the water's conductive or something.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#32

Post by simoncion »

Some folks are suggesting ferrite beads, others are suggesting shorter cables.

If one has a medium-sized chunk of money to burn, one could try fiber optic cabling. I've personally had -AFAICT- perfect results from Monoprice's "SlimRun AV" fiber DisplayPort cables, and Nippon Labs' fiber HDMI cables. [0] I expect that Monoprice's fiber HDMI cables and Nippon Labs' fiber DisplayPort cables are also fine, but I've never used those, so I cannot comment.

For folks concerned about "dreadfully fragile" fiber optic cables, I do know that the Monoprice cables are durable... a vigorous misadventure caused me to torque the hell out of the monitor-side connector. The connector bent, forcing the case split a bit at the seam. After some counter-bending of the connector and pushing its case back mostly closed, the cable works fine. Given the outward similarity in build quality, I expect that the Nippon Labs cable I have is at least as durable.

[0] Both families of cables drive my "4k" HDR monitor at 60Hz without lossy compression.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#34

Post by Animats »

Make sure that all your wall outlets in the area are actually grounded. Get an outlet tester at a hardware store and check. They cost about $10. Good first step. There are sometimes 3-prong outlets where the ground connection is not connected, especially in older buildings. This is an electrical code violation, so if there's a landlord involved, get them to fix it.

Laptop plus external monitor is an interesting case. The monitor should be grounded via its power plug, but the laptop's ground may be floating. Not sure about the grounding path for Apple laptops. Attempts to find info on laptop grounding online are returning AI slop. If everything is running off 2-prong plug external power supplies, there may not be any grounding.

Get the room humidity above 40% and most static effects will disappear. The water in the air grounds them out. That's often the easiest solution.

There are electrostatic field meters. Halfway decent ones start around US$150. I used to have a surplus store field detector on my desk when assembling electronics. It would squawk if the field level got high. Wearing a wrist strap would shut it up. With a meter, you stop guessing. This isn't mysterious, just something that needs instrumentation to chase down.

The chair chain is good, but make sure that the shiny enameled chain and the floors are actually conductive.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#35

Post by fullstop »

KIFulgore wrote: post #20
MisterTea wrote: post #15

Might want to increase humidity. In ESD rooms the humidity is controlled and kept high to reduce static build up. to add: > In my particular case, my chair wheels are made out of plastic (non-conductive), so my solution was to “ground” my chair by adding a metallic chain from the chair to my room floor. I got the idea from reddit. The chain grounded chair is used all the time in ESD rooms. The floors in these rooms u…

This. I had a huge problem with static shocking my desk in the dry winter air, causing my monitor to blank out for a few seconds. A small, quiet ultrasonic humidifier completely eliminated the problem. On a side note, distilled water is highly recommended with ultrasonic humidifiers. Heat-based devices evaporate solely the water and leave mineral deposits behind. Ultrasonics create tiny droplets _along with the disso…

Evaporative > Ultrasonic, hands down.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#36

Post by VorpalWay »

KIFulgore wrote: post #20
MisterTea wrote: post #15

Might want to increase humidity. In ESD rooms the humidity is controlled and kept high to reduce static build up. to add: > In my particular case, my chair wheels are made out of plastic (non-conductive), so my solution was to “ground” my chair by adding a metallic chain from the chair to my room floor. I got the idea from reddit. The chain grounded chair is used all the time in ESD rooms. The floors in these rooms u…

This. I had a huge problem with static shocking my desk in the dry winter air, causing my monitor to blank out for a few seconds. A small, quiet ultrasonic humidifier completely eliminated the problem. On a side note, distilled water is highly recommended with ultrasonic humidifiers. Heat-based devices evaporate solely the water and leave mineral deposits behind. Ultrasonics create tiny droplets _along with the disso…

Distilled water is somewhat expensive, and humidifiers chew through water in the winter (at least here). I quickly switched away from ultrasonic for that reason, 6-8 litres of distilled water per day for a medium sized apartment is not sustainable. Evaporative with tap water and biocides is the way to go.

The air outside is extremely dry (<5% relative humidity once heated to indoor temperatures), and the air is quickly replaced by the ventilation. I have anecdotely heard that in the US they have much lower requirements of rate of air replacement than here in Sweden though, so maybe that could work there, but then you would also have stale air, which doesn't sound great.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#37

Post by fullstop »

algoth1 wrote: post #24

Many years ago I had a LG CRT that often would turn off in the exact moment I entered the bedroom. The monitor was configured to go to sleep after 20 or so minutes of inactivity, so it was supposed to turn off on its own. And I always assumed it was a case of only noticing it when it did happen (like when you buy a car and suddenly start seeing the same model everywhere)... But it always seemed uncannily frequent...…

I replaced some ceiling boob lights with flush-mounted LED panels -- they are a nice warm color, and I like them. I have a UHF/VHF antenna in my attic and I use it once a year to watch the Superbowl.

I found out this year that my reception is horrendous if those lights are on. The coax cable which goes from the attic to the TV downstairs runs right above the lights and the LED driver / PWM noise must couple with the coaxial cable. I'm not running anything fancy like RG6 since I just re-used whatever cable was already run up there from the 70s.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#39

Post by analog31 »

Not an issue for the author but a rolling desk chair on one of those plastic mats made to protect a carpeted floor are the perfect storm for generating static. Also a fun fact that gas tanker trucks used to drag a chain for this reason.

Re: Fixing a monitor that goes black, off or blinks due to static electricity (2023)

#40

Post by peteyPete »

VorpalWay wrote: post #36
KIFulgore wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I had a huge problem with static shocking my desk in the dry winter air, causing my monitor to blank out for a few seconds. A small, quiet ultrasonic humidifier completely eliminated the problem. On a side note, distilled water is highly recommended with ultrasonic humidifiers. Heat-based devices evaporate solely the water and leave mineral deposits behind. Ultrasonics create tiny droplets _along with the disso…

Distilled water is somewhat expensive, and humidifiers chew through water in the winter (at least here). I quickly switched away from ultrasonic for that reason, 6-8 litres of distilled water per day for a medium sized apartment is not sustainable. Evaporative with tap water and biocides is the way to go. The air outside is extremely dry (<5% relative humidity once heated to indoor temperatures), and the air is quick…

A reverse osmosis filter will provide plenty of water with nearly no minerals. They're available to install under the sink/counter for a few hundred bucks and provide clean drinking/cooking water and work fine with ultrasonic humidifiers without the issue of depositing minerals everywhere / clogging up the ultrasonic emitter. So its a lot cheaper than buying it plus you get great water.
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