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Surge Protector and confusion about grounded indicator

Tags:
  • Light
  • grounding
  • grounded
  • Surge Protector
Last response: in Computer Peripherals
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September 18, 2014 8:32:28 AM

Hello! I have been reading the various threads on properly grounding a computer and have learned quite a bit, but there's a question I couldn't find an answer to.

After having just moved and set up my office in the new home, I noticed that this room has the only outlet in the house that doesn't have three-pronged plugs. I bought a three prong adapter, plugged my surge protector into the adapter, and the rest of my desktop setup into the surge protector.

My surge protector has two light indicators; A red light for Protected and a green light for Grounded.

When my computers PSU is turned off, the surge protector indicates that it is PROTECTED and GROUNDED. When I turn the PSU on, the green indicator for GROUNDED turns off.

I'm having trouble understanding why this happens and would like to know what this means.

Thank you

More about : surge protector confusion grounded indicator

September 19, 2014 1:12:08 AM

It depends on what 3 prong adapter you bought. Here are two examples of grounded adapters http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/36697/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-grounding-tab-wire-on-a-3-prong-to-2-prong-adapter. Just make sure the that screw that holds the face plate is actually connected to metal structure that holds the outlets. Turn off power to that room and test by plugging in a lamp or something to make sure the power is turned off. Remove the face plate, there should be three wires that are connected to the outlet, red, black and green. IF it has a green wire connected to the outlet you might be ok as long as the wires are connected correctly and the house is actually grounded properly.

You might even want to check all the outlets in your house to see if they are properly connected. Also as kind of a footnote, if you have cable, the cable guy comes out and grounds his stuff which can cause a problem with grounding.

Happy wiring, the Prisoner...
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