[bsmoore]

Just wanted to see if anyone could help out with my experience. I wanted to try PC gaming on my Hitachi 51 RPTV. I have the ATI 9800 all in wonder installed so I plugged in the red component adapter into the video out on the card. When I attempted to plug in the component cables from the TV into the adapter I heard a pop and saw flash come from the back of the TV! I'm sure it's not a shock to some of you the input I was using is fried. I thought the problem might have been that the TV and PC were both powered on when I did this so I thought I'd give it another go with input # 2. Don't worry the TV is under Circuit City warrenty anyways so what the hell. So I turned off the TV and unplugged the PC. Now everything is hooked up and I turned the TV on. Ok...nothing blowing up, Let's try plugging PC power in... wooooow - nevermind! As soon as I plugged the power cable into the back of the PC the lights dimmed and a loud buzzing occured!?! Also when i try to connect the cable (coax tv cable) to the back of the computer (ATI tuner card) it sparks like crazy. Everything is hooked up correctly and everything works fine by itself. It only occurs when I try connecting soemthing to the PC - weather its the receiver, tv, or cable. Now i'm pretty sure it has something to do with the electrical in this old apartment building i live in because i've had the cable (tv) connected to this same machine at my parents house with no problem. Others have suggested it maybe because the tv, receiver, cable have different ground points than the computer does. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Any suggestions would help.

 

[JimP]

If you have a voltmeter, check to see what the voltage is coming out of the signal output from the computer.

 

[jonwww]

If you had the coax connected to the computer somewhere else & it was fine then chances are an electrician is in your future. Sounds like you may have bad neutral in house wiring. Many times when this happens people really have no idea until house burns down (worst case scenerio, but it does happen). Chances are if the neutral is bad it has no where to really ground to, when you're connecting the coax you're introducing a ground (if it's connected correctly outside or in basement). Even if you didn't have the coax connected to the back of computer for tuner card when you connect pc to tv (I assume tv is connected to coax either straight in or via cable box) you're still connecting ground. Coax is not rated to handle these voltages/amps or are electronic components. Electronics will blow up & cable wire will basically melt or least get hot/soft. Call an electrician, good luck & let us know how you make out.

 

[jjdenver]

You can get a simple electrical outlet tester at the hardware store. Mine is yellow, with 3 lights on it. Plug it into any outlet and the lights will tell you if there is a problem. It will detect open grounds, reversed ground and neutral, reversed neutral and hot, and so on.


After my father got a nasty shock using an electric drill on an improperly wired outlet, I ALWAYS test every outlet right after it is installed. I also checked every outlet in my house when I moved in. It may sound a bit anal, but it's easy and quick if you have a tester.