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Sounds like you have a floating earth and it definitely needs to be fixed. You could be picking up voltage through inductance or there is an earth fault developing on a piece of equipment somewhere.
Hopefully you have a functioning ELCB at the main incomer which is at the current legislative requirements (UK) of 30mA, so if things do get worse you have some protection.
Time to get a sparky in.
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DaveAuld wrote: Hopefully you have a functioning ELCB at the main incomer which is at the current legislative requirements (UK) of 30mA, so if things do get worse you have some protection.
Thank elephant for decent safety legislation - I know we all knock 'elf & safety, but having lived in a place where the [rare] actual standards are flouted I'm glad we have them & they are adhered to. Over in the middle east the "electrician" we had in extended the cable to the portable electric heater - he wired a existing 13a three-core cord to the sort of two-core cable commonly used for doorbells. He didn't even use a junction box - just electrician's tape - double plus good when the cable was run across the floor with children running around. I wired up a proper extension cable - when I found out, and I only noticed it something was wrong because when I trod on the doorbell cable it was warm underfoot... I blame the "it is written" mentality in the Middle East - it took some convincing that just leaving this to chance was not a good idea, especially in a tinder-dry room.
Alberto Brandolini: The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
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If it just started there may be a grounding issue as you say, maybe the earth ground broke or...
Check main box where electrical comes into house there's usually a copper wire that is connected to a rod that drove into the ground some 3ft. or so and see if connection is good. Just a thought!
If first you don't succeed, hide all evidence you ever tried!
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It is probably stray capacitance that's giving you a small leakage current. However, as others have said, it's a symptom of a potentially serious fault and you need to get a professional to look into and rectify the problem, and the sooner the better.
If indeed there is no main earth connection, but you have appliances with metal cases that are connected to the (floating) earth, then a second fault in one of those appliances could make the cases of all of them live. The consequences of that would not be good.
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BarrRobot is right sir.
Many appliances (washmachines, computers, microwave oven...) have Pi filters with small capacitances linked to the metal case that make an voltage leakage on cases when earth (plug) is not realy earthed (grounded) from main power supply. The actual leakage current may be not sufficient to make protection effective (30mA min.)!
You must connect ( if not) an additional earth (ground) fault protection device to the earthed (grounded) connectors.
Any case, the electrical system has to be earthed and that it have to comply with safety standards.
entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
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I hope I'm right - I'm a Chartered Electrical Engineer!
I can think of a relatively simple test to establish whether there is indeed a missing earth connection, but the test itself would involve an element of risk. As there is a strong indication that the installation is not compliant with the safety standards, professional help is the only course of action that I'd normally recommend.
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If you are familiar with the current regs and have the correct equipment by all means trace the fault and fix it yourself . Failing that , and recognising that because you do not know the cause then it could potentially lead to electrocution ( which tends to be a bit ouchy if your lucky or a bit deathy like if your not) Then I would get someone who does know the regs and does have the equipment . I believe they are called professionals . Just imagine this as the coding VB6 to control an aircraft whilst you are on the aircraft . It might work , there might be no issues , but ? Really ?
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Hi All,
Bought a new PC for the parents after my long trusted XP box died finally. All I can say is "Yuck!" a start button that takes you to metro? no start Menu, I get the impression that its all for the Surface / Windows phone and shoe horned on to a desktop. The only thing is the speed at which it boots (probably because there is nothing on it at the moment!). Well that's 20+ years of familiarity down the drain, trying to get Security Essential's to find Bit Defender is in place already took a little while to figure out. Can anybody tell me why you need a touch screen layout on a desktop machine? Vista was a little odd compared to this Elephant! 
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You're a bit late on this discussion! Install a start button (classic shell, I think), it will be far more familiar then. Oh, and dissociate all your files with metro apps.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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Install a start button, interesting... can you point me to a link, please...?
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Mmmm... saw that on Saturday I was looking at it thinking am I creating a backdoor here, will that cause parents to be bombarded with more spam than they were getting already (my Dad had the habit of putting his E-mail on everything, just maybe...)
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Just upgrade it to Windows 7! 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Too bad I haven't got downgrade rights... 7 worked
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It boots ever so slightly faster though right? Right?
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Not really, credit where it's due - its bloody quick.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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I was thinking it was due to their being nothing on it...
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Well there's heaps on mine, and it's ready to log in less than 5 seconds after leaving BIOS from reboot and instantly when opening the lid on laptop.
I think they've done quite a lot of work in this area - probably delayed start of services and such.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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I don't think Windows 8 really shuts down unless you tell it to specifically, I've seen issues with people being confused by a long uptime (in sysinfo) after starting up, shutdown in Windows 8 is basically a glorified hibernate.
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*patpat*
It's a full screen start menu, honey!
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If your parents' eyes aren't eagle quality then it would make sense to train them to use the included Metro e-mail client, Metro IE, Skype, etc. because these use human grade typhography.
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Ooh heck, it took me years to train them to click start! 
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Suck it up. We don't live in an XP world anymore.
I know your parents will resist the change, as you seem to be doing.
I accepted the change when W8 first came out and learned how to navigate this new landscape. Now I am actually changing my file type preferences to Metro (I know I shouldn't call them that) style apps because I am used to the presentation and old school apps seem so 20th Century. Kind of like when windows apps started to replace DOS apps.
Are you one of the people who prefer DOS apps styling? 
Once you lose your pride the rest is easy.
I would agree with you but then we both would be wrong.
The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
I'm on-line therefore I am.
JimmyRopes
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