Anyone Good With 120V/Computer Electrical Stuff?, So damn pissed! Options

[Coomer]

Since I've moved in to my new apartment, I've received minor to moderate shocks when I touch my laptop and my external CD-RW drive frequently, which are plugged into a power strip and then into the wall. This never happened at my house in Yakima or anywhere else.

I didn't think it was a big deal, but today I brought up my brand new computer that I just built today, because my laptop began crashing often and performing like crap(Now that I think about it, maybe the problems are due to my apartment's electrical.)

So I brought up my new computer, plugged it into the wall, hooked everything up and turned it on. For some reason, nothing showed up on my 19" Viewsonic monitor, even though the green light(meaning there's a signal getting to it) was on. So I unplugged the VGA cord from the tower to my laptop, turned on the second display, and then when I applied the settings, the desktop and open dialog boxes showed up on the monitor but looked as if they were moving towards me, then the monitor went back to its stage of blackness.

Great! My year-old Viewsonic monitor that worked perfectly at my house is probably dead.

So since the tower was still on, I went to hit the power button and turn it off. As soon as I touched the button(didn't even push it in,) I received a very painful shock and the computer just shut off. The computer worked perfectly at my house earlier today.

To me, it seems as if my electronics are grounding through me, rather than the grounded outlets on the walls. I called the apartment maintenance and they're pretty much no help, stating that I'll probably have to wait until next week before they can help me, even though I told them it's dangerous and shocks people. They also didn't seem to care that I'm a computer science major and HAVE TO HAVE a computer so that I can learn Java before classes start in a month. I'm so damn pissed! First my internet access didn't work, then my cable, now my electrical outlets don't even seem to be working!

Anyone have any ideas?

[mr_dude]

So the shocks came from metal or plastic? If it's plastic, then you're just discharging static electricity from walking across the carpet. Try doing it and touching a balloon. Plastic doesn't conduct very well so it shouldn't be from the wall.

Granted, you probably know the difference between a bad static shock, and sticking your finger in the wall.

Best way would be to grab an oscilloscope or AC coupled multimeter. Excessive power can make electronics go wiggy, but it should melt them down before it arcs across to your hardware and makes it a giant capacitor.

Viewsonic's a good company and there's no physical damage. Return it!

It'd suck to have to use a school computer lab, though intro Java programs pretty much write themselves.