[PLUG] flickering monitor advice?

[Kyle Accardi]

Brent Rieck wrote:
> Hello,
>   This isn't a Linux-specific related question, but I hope a few people
> here might have some insight or advice.
> 
>   I recently moved my home office setup to a different side of the room
> as well as removed a few of the power strips I had in my Rube Golberg 
> extension cord.  Everything works great except that the image both of my
> monitors now flickers and shakes whenever the coffee pot heater kicks on
> (I believe anyway, it's hard to tell since it's across the room and it's
> pretty quiet).  Neither the coffee pot or computer monitors have changed
> power circuits (both are on different breakers), only their relative
> orientations and number of power strips inline has changed.
> 
>   The coffee pot is a pretty simple affair, no motors, no moving parts
> (that are electrically actuated) AFAIK, just a clock to turn it on at
> specific times and a thermostatically controlled hot plate.
> 
>   I'm guessing it's a power filtering issue as several of the power
> strips I had inline before were of the filtering kind, and now they're
> gone - but there still is one filtering power strip and two filtering
> UPSes that the power has to go through to get to a monitor.  
> 
> Does this sound reasonable, or am I wasting my time looking into finding
> some kind of serious power filtering device?  

First, I'd check the voltage at the power strips.  Make sure it is at least 
115.  Also make sure that hot and neutral aren't reversed at either the 
coffee pot or computer wall outlets.

While it's true that the surge suppressors (MOVs) in the strips and UPS will 
wear out, the filter should not.  Is it possible to unplug the coffee pot 
long enough to determine if it is the source of the interferance?

--
Kyle Accardi