Qustion about the electrical outlets in my home?

Question

When I plug my Dell laptop into outlets on the 2nd floor of my home the pointer becomes really jumpy, and hard to control. I would assume it is a computer problem, but it is only on the 2nd floor outlets, and I had an HP which did the same thing. What can I check to see if my house is wired incorrectly? All other appliances seem to work ok.

Answer 1

It could be a polarity problem, meaning that the white and black (or red) wires are reversed. The white wire goes on the silver screw of the outlet and the black or red wire goes on the gold screw. It could be a voltage issue, but I doubt it. The longer distance a wire runs from its source, the more voltage is dropped. I have never seen a house big enough to run wires that would be long enough for voltage drop to be a problem. Plus, most laptop power supplies have a pretty decent voltage range that you can connect them to. I would get a digital meter and check the voltage at the outlet where you are experiencing the problem. If it is not pretty close to 120 volts (110 - 125 would be acceptable), you could have a loose connection somewhere in the house and if so, that should be traced and repaired.

Answer 2

This sound like an electrical interference problem. There is likely something on the same circuit that is causing electrical interference which is too great for the power supply to filter out.

Do you have dimmers, wireless devices, ceiling fans (could be below where you are using your laptop)

Try unplugging and turning off some of the devices near where you are using your computer and work out. Remember that a ceiling fan below where you use the computer could also cause the problem.