User shows how dangerous a simple tool can be for your gaming PC

A user had bought a new gaming PC, but he kept getting annoying electric shocks. He finally found the origin of the problem in a household tool.

Anyone who buys a new gaming PC will initially be happy about the new hardware and – in most cases – significantly more performance. But one user had little joy at the start of his gaming career.

Every time he touched his computer, he received violent electric shocks. He finally found the solution to the problem in his air purifier, which he had connected in the same room.

Air purifiers are supposed to ensure clean air, but instead cause annoying problems

What exactly happened? A user had invested money and bought a new gaming PC and new peripherals. But a few weeks later the problems started. That’s what he writes in his post reddit:

A few weeks later I touch the metal button and get electrocuted, no big deal I guess, probably static electricity. But it keeps happening, over and over again. Pretty big shocks. I work in the automotive industry and am a computer engineer, I get electrocuted quite often by random circuits.

At first he suspected that it must be his keyboard. But he also got an electric shock when he removed his headset from the PC. And the headset was connected via USB. He then worried that either his power supply was gone or that his apartment was not properly grounded.

He checked the grounding of his apartment with a multimeter – so far everything is said to have been fine.

Eventually he replaced his power supply. Still, the problems persisted. In a further step, he switched off all electrical devices in the room and plugged in each one individually in combination with his computer.

Here he found that the culprit is the air purifier. Because the user uses an ionized air purifier for his room where the computer is:

Well these little ionized particles probably settled on my PC, PSU and whatnot and caused some of the weird little shocks I got.

He has since turned off the air purifier’s ionization feature. Since then he has had no more problems.

Ionized air purifiers and their benefits are controversial

Ionized air purifiers are considered controversial aids. The air purifiers should significantly reduce dust, as the ions bind the dust. The problem, however, is that ozone is formed in the process. The reactive gas ozone has a germicidal effect, but even small amounts can irritate the respiratory tract. Because of its germicidal effect, the gas is mainly used in industry.

In addition, it has not yet been 100% proven how effective ionization actually is and how the feature affects viruses (via Umweltbundesamt.de).

A well-known tech YouTuber also revealed that you shouldn’t use every cable in your computer. Because in the worst case you not only break your gaming PC, but in the worst case you even have a house fire to deal with:

YouTuber shows how you can ruin your gaming PC with a single cable