Adapting plugs: 2-prong to 3-prong adapters & power for computers

[Sossity]

I have my laptop set up in my room, with a power strip/surge suppressor with multiple plugs to plug in peripherals, but all my outlets are older 2 prong only, the home I am in was built in the 1950's. So right now the power strip has both lights on; red for not protected, & the green on for grounded. I had to use a 2 to 3 prong adapter to plug the macbook pro's AC cord into my wall.

how do I safely get it to be ground? is it critical? there are occasional power outages in my home when more lights or fans are on, & or if some one uses a vacuum cleaner, we have had the breaker switch go off a couple of times. This happens maybe about 1 time per year. Some times we get lightening strikes as well with the power going out.

I know very little about electrical wiring, so suggestions for me to rewire my outlets wont help, nor can I just hire an electrician, it is my parents home, & the economy has hit us all hard. I am afraid to tinker with something & short out my whole home.

I have noticed that the 2 to 3 prong adapters have a metal tab on them, to attach to the wall outlet plate. How do I do this? & can I do it safely? or does the power in my whole home have to be turned off?

So far I have had no choice but to just be careful about the power, when there are heavy draws on it, I try not to be on the laptop or have it on, likewise if there is a storm with lighting & thunder, I just power down & wait the storm out.

When I power down the laptop, can a surge harm it even if it is turned off but still plugged into the power strip? the laptop is also connected to a wired network to another computer in the house can an outage travel along the Ethernet wire that connects to my laptop & cause damage?

what about a modem? There is another computer in my home with a DSL modem that is all plugged into a grounded power strip, we had a power outage, & everything was shut off except for the modem & the telephone. When this happens, does it damage the modem?

I also notice that the power strip that the modem computer plugs into has an ethernt or telephone jack plug available, do I use it? right now one end of the modem Ethernet telephone cord is plugged into the modem, & the other is plugged into a phone line or phone jack near a telephone.

[lordsmurf]

There are really only 3 options:
1. Re-wire the house.
2. Replace one wall outlet with a GFCI outlet.
3. You're screwed. Good luck. (You do NOT want to use those 2-prong to 3-prong adapters on electronics.)

The most economical option would be to replace the one wall outlet with a GFCI outlet. There's a much longer description of this already online, so I'll just copy/paste that paragraph here real quick:

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomshardware.co.uk/forum/264400-10-poor-electrical-ground

8. An alternative to a true Ground system for safety is a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI). You can actually buy the simpler one-circuit version of these at any electrical supplies or hardware shop. They look a lot like a normal 3-prong double outlet (but more expensive) and you mount them into the wall box in place of the old outlet device. (Obviously, before starting you MUST isolate power from the box before opening, by removing the fuse or shutting off the breaker that supplies this outlet box.) They are different on the front in that they also have a little indicator light, a TEST button, and a RESET button. If you don't understand house wiring you are best advised to have this item installed by someone who does, like an electrician. (If you are competent at home electrical systems, see end of this paragraph.) Once properly installed, what they do is to constantly measure and compare the currents flowing in both the Hot and Neutral parts of the circuit. Those ALWAYS should match. If they don't the GFCI interprets that to mean some current is leaking out of the circuit to somewhere else, and that could be a big problem. So it shuts off the power or "trips out", just like a circuit breaker does. Once you fix the original problem, you use the Reset button. You can test at any time with the Test button, and it will trip out for you. The intriguing part is that this device does not need a true Ground point to operate, so it can work in an ungrounded outlet box. It just uses a different measurement to decide when to shut off power. So it provides very similar safety protection for people and for many appliance malfunctions, but it does nothing for getting rid of electrical noise and static charges. Now, for those competent to install a GFCI, here are notes to use; all others skip down. READ the GFCI unit's manual; it usually has four terminals or wire leads. Three of these are the usual Hot (Black), Neutral (White) and Ground (Green or bare copper). These are the supply connections to the double outlet. The fourth (often Red) is an OUTPUT of sorts. It is a Hot connection on the Load side of the device (just like the small right-hand slots) that you can use to power additional outlet boxes further down the circuit layout. If there's a cable leaving this box to power other boxes, use this "Output" Red as the Hot supply going out on that cable. Then ALL the outlet boxes "downstream" from this box also are protected by the GFCI, but NOT any boxes that came before it. For that reason, if you plan on using the GFCI for this multi-outlet box protection system, the device should be mounted in the very first box in the chain - the one fed directly from the Fuse Box or Breaker Panel.

Here's a tip for you -- make friends with the handyman (handymen) at your school, college or workplace. These blue collar folks tend to be quite nice people, and can often be persuaded to help you out, be it for free or for a small bribe. Sometimes it's as easy as exchanging favors.

My kitchens and bathrooms, for example, all have GFCI outlets. The kitchen itself is further protected by an actual GFCI breaker in the box in the garage.

Beyond that, outside the outlet, you really want the computer's "surge protector" to be a full-blown UPS (uninterruptal power supply). There are several brands available, with APC being the best choice. I don't suggest Cyberpower or GeekSquad (the Best Buy house brand). These range from $40 to $200 or more --- and you ideally want to get the most expensive one you can afford. I suggest the $60-range models as decent for the money.

Get best prices on APC UPS from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.ht...reative=390957

And then you'll be grounded, battery-protected, and surge protected.

[lordsmurf]

Quote:

what about a modem? There is another computer in my home with a DSL modem that is all plugged into a grounded power strip, we had a power outage, & everything was shut off except for the modem & the telephone. When this happens, does it damage the modem?
I also notice that the power strip that the modem computer plugs into has an ethernt or telephone jack plug available, do I use it? right now one end of the modem Ethernet telephone cord is plugged into the modem, & the other is plugged into a phone line or phone jack near a telephone.

Plug the modem's power cord into the surge protector (or better yet, a UPS).

The phone cord protection is both ridiculous and useless. Don't bother.
Encountering a phone wire surge is less likely that you winning the lottery or dying in a plane crash.

[kpmedia]

Sometimes outlets were just installed badly -- even in the 1950s. There's a chance that the wiring has a ground wire that's simply not in use, meaning it could be a fairly easy outlet replacement. But you'd want to check with somebody that really knows about electrical home wiring, whether it's an electrician, general handyman, or even simply a friend or family member.

[NJRoadfan]

Well, there are two ways to get around this problem. If the house happens to have BX armored power cable run to the box in the room, you can do the following.

1. Ground the 2 to 3 prong adapter, most have a metal tab that you can fit behind the screw that holds the wall plate.

2. Replace the outlet with a proper 3 prong outlet. If you are lucky, there is a ground wire laying in the gem box. If not, and BX is run from the breaker box to the gem box (and the box is made of metal), just run the ground from the outlet to the box itself. The metal shielding of the BX cable acts as a ground path.

http://www.handymanusa.com/articles/ground1.html

[Sossity]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJRoadfan

Well, there are two ways to get around this problem. If the house happens to have BX armored power cable run to the box in the room, you can do the following.

1. Ground the 2 to 3 prong adapter, most have a metal tab that you can fit behind the screw that holds the wall plate.

2. Replace the outlet with a proper 3 prong outlet. If you are lucky, there is a ground wire laying in the gem box. If not, and BX is run from the breaker box to the gem box (and the box is made of metal), just run the ground from the outlet to the box itself. The metal shielding of the BX cable acts as a ground path.

http://www.handymanusa.com/articles/ground1.html

do I need to turn off my breaker switch or power to the house to attach a screw to the metal tab to the faceplate of the outlet? as described in point 1.

[NJRoadfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sossity

do I need to turn off my breaker switch or power to the house to attach a screw to the metal tab to the faceplate of the outlet? as described in point 1.

No, you do not. Only time you have to turn off power is if you are working with live wire. Grounds are safe and carry no current. If the box isn't grounded, the wiring fault light on the power strip will remain on. If you decide to replace the outlet.... yes power must be turned off on that circuit!

[admin]

I tend to be a bit nervous around electrical wiring of any kind, so I always turn off the main breakers for any and all electrical work --- regardless of how the box is labeled, or what I'm doing. Getting hit by 110V is not fun. I'm not one to tempt fate in this area.