My Monitor won't stop flashing!

[Corwyn]

I have an Acer FP751 flat screen.
It's about 5-6' from my ballasts and lights.
This afternoon the thing startef to flicker constantly.
I also noticed a new noticable buzzing from one of my ballasts

Not sure which one. How do I make it go away?????

 

[maurod]

Does the flashing go away when you unplug your ballasts?

 

[Corwyn]

yes, when all 3 are off it stops. but I've unplugged and turned on all of them one at a time. and I can't figure out which one is doing it.

 

[~Flighty~]

Ground loop? That is when there are multiple paths to ground and it can mess electronics up.

 

[Corwyn]

OK, How do I test that? And should I be afraid of putting my hands in the water now?

 

[~Flighty~]

It wouldn't be a danger, it just sets up some electrical patterns that mess up electronics that use the ground as a reference. If you turn on an AM radio you will probably hear the buzzing. Other than that I can't tell you how to fix it or test it. You can look for more than one grounding rod for your house electrical. But I really don't know what I'm talking about, so call a professional.

 

[dedfish]

Move your monitor further away from your ballasts. It's not good for the monitor. Kinda like what happens if you put a fan too close to a monitor.

EDIT: Opps...you said 5-6 FEET. That should be plenty. Disregard what I said.

 

[ceige]

Change your refresh rate and see if that helps......

 

[smcnally]

A ground loop could cause scrolling lines on your monitor, but not cause it to flash on and off (at least in my experience). If your ballast is buzzing more noticeably, it may be crapping out and causing some voltage surges and drains which could cause your monitor to do that (and could eventually kill the monitor and the PC).

 

[wakey]

Not ground!

If this were a ground issue you have a dangerous situation, unplug all and get help. Sounds like an imbalance on the neutral, I assume these are on the same circuit? Move the tv to the kitchen or any other circuit and test from there. As a note when running new circuits to tanks never run a 3-wire to gain 2 circuits (sharing a neutral), many issue's can arise.

 

[~Flighty~]

I think a ground loop isn't nessecarilly dangerous. you still have a good ground, you just have more than one.

 

[clamm]

acer is not know to have very good emi shielding...if it really bothers you and you cant move it to another area you might consider a higher end brand. you will find that they do the same thing with a fan next to them.

 

[smcnally]

I think a ground loop isn't nessecarilly dangerous. you still have a good ground, you just have more than one.

Cindy, we are not saying it is a ground loop. We are saying it is not a ground loop. If I'm not mistaken "Wakey" is my boss (I'm guessing by the name, and the way he answered the question). Just so eveyone here knows, he is licensed master electrician. I would listen to what he said, before any of the other opinions here. He's pretty much a brainiac when it comes to electrical crap.

 

[~Flighty~]

Cindy, we are not saying it is a ground loop. We are saying it is not a ground loop. If I'm not mistaken "Wakey" is my boss (I'm guessing by the name, and the way he answered the question). Just so eveyone here knows, he is licensed master electrician. I would listen to what he said, before any of the other opinions here. He's pretty much a brainiac when it comes to electrical crap.

gotcha, reading too fast again