Woody
08-27-2009, 10:10 AM
As you know most laptops have universal power supplies that will plug into a wide variety of electrical outlets from 100V to 240V and 50Hz to 60Hz AC. All you need is the appropriate adapter plug to fit the wall socket which can be picked up at an electronics shop.
I travel to Europe frequently with my Sager NP9262 and have found an interesting problem when using many foreign high voltage power sources. Grounding.... Often the outlets aren't grounded at all and the grounding plugs aren't actually hooked up to any kind of ground. The problem is that the metal top of the notebook buzzes. Not a noise kind of a buzz but if you touch it you can feel the vibration and it just doesn't feel very healthy even though the system works fine. Sometimes the outlets are properly grounded but you just might not have an adapter with a grounding connection.
In any case, I've come up with a workaround that seems to fix the problem. A USB cable. Any USB cable will work such as a printer cable, camera, or phone charger cable. Plug the cable into a USB outlet on the laptop and connect the other end of the cable to a ground source which can be any large metal object such as a desk lamp, a television, or a human body. You may have to get creative in securing the cable end to the object you are using as a ground. Ive found wedging it between a couple of RCA type plugs on a large TV so that the metal plug of the USB cable makes metal to metal contact with the outside portion of the RCA plug, or wedging it under the base of another large metal object such as a lamp or just attaching the end in a way so that it touches your body (except I wouldn't recommend this during an electrical storm).
In any case, you do that and the vibration stops and it provides a moderately effective ground even though it's not a true ground.
I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this. I've noticed this on my old 5792 I had prior to my 9262 as well.
I travel to Europe frequently with my Sager NP9262 and have found an interesting problem when using many foreign high voltage power sources. Grounding.... Often the outlets aren't grounded at all and the grounding plugs aren't actually hooked up to any kind of ground. The problem is that the metal top of the notebook buzzes. Not a noise kind of a buzz but if you touch it you can feel the vibration and it just doesn't feel very healthy even though the system works fine. Sometimes the outlets are properly grounded but you just might not have an adapter with a grounding connection.
In any case, I've come up with a workaround that seems to fix the problem. A USB cable. Any USB cable will work such as a printer cable, camera, or phone charger cable. Plug the cable into a USB outlet on the laptop and connect the other end of the cable to a ground source which can be any large metal object such as a desk lamp, a television, or a human body. You may have to get creative in securing the cable end to the object you are using as a ground. Ive found wedging it between a couple of RCA type plugs on a large TV so that the metal plug of the USB cable makes metal to metal contact with the outside portion of the RCA plug, or wedging it under the base of another large metal object such as a lamp or just attaching the end in a way so that it touches your body (except I wouldn't recommend this during an electrical storm).
In any case, you do that and the vibration stops and it provides a moderately effective ground even though it's not a true ground.
I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this. I've noticed this on my old 5792 I had prior to my 9262 as well.