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Top-level
The only correlation I could find was that the screen only goes off when my Ikea office chair is somehow involved. So I suspected a loose contact somewhere. But no. No matter how much I wiggled the table/cables, everything was fine. The problem was only there when I sat down or stood up, although the chair didn't even touch the table. 145 comments
I started to lose faith and couldn't find a logical explanation. So I searched the internet for "ikea markus chair screen problems" 🤦♂️ WAIT! I am not the only one with this problem!? Found the following (German) forum post: https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/hauptmonitor-wird-sporadisch-kurz-schwarz.2060771/ It turns out that the fabric seat cover, and/or the gas suspension creates such a strong electrostatic discharge (ESD) that my screen shuts off for a short time. The solution? No idea yet, but it seems that insulating the chair with copper foil and connecting it to a socket (ground) might help. 🤦♂️ Welcome to 2023 - Your Ikea "MARKUS" chair is not compatible with your screen 👏 (Not my chair, the picture is from the forum post) @haeckerfelix ahaha, uau, that is interesting. I bet you went all Poirot on the situation. I'm glad you've found the bug 🤓  @haeckerfelix wait, what? 😳😅 I have the same issue! With a different chair, not from IKEA and only my main screen (the secondary one is identical though) shuts off randomly sometimes. Thought my GPU was bad or something, never could've thought it might be linked to the chair. 😅 @amxmln Is it possible that your second monitor is connected via DisplayPort? I have the feeling that DisplayPort is more "sensitive" than HDMI in that regard. @haeckerfelix My primary screen (the one which shuts off) is plugged in via HDMI and the secondary (which remains on) via Display Port—but the secondary screen is further away from my chair than the primary one. 🤔 I’ll keep an eye on whether or not I can reliably reproduce it now that I know it might be the chair. 😊  @amxmln @haeckerfelix HDMI seems to be more sensitive to interference. I have two external displays on a laptop, and only of of those gets blanked frequently. Larger display has longer cable, so that might be part of the reason why it's more sensitive to any issues. Maybe better cable quality might reduce part of the issues, as some of the thinner cables don't have that much insulation. But seriously, the chair is likely to the blame, not the cables. Floor covering might also matter a bit, too?   @haeckerfelix I had major issues like this due to a cheap, badly shielded DisplayPort cable. Whenever a USB cable came in contact with it, the screen flickered or went off. Bought a bit more expensive one - problem solved. @haeckerfelix Oh yes, there's a white paper about this issue. https://emcesd.com/pdf/eos93.pdf @greg_harvey @haeckerfelix That takes me back! One of my electronic engineering lecturers at uni in the 90's (the very cool Dr. Tozer) earthed his office chair to the radiator in his room. I must be getting old, just checked, and he's now an Emeritus Professor! 😀  @haeckerfelix eh, one of my external screens turns off for .5s when I turn on the light next to it, or sometimes when my fridge starts… @haeckerfelix This reminds me of this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLs2ibJf6jo @haeckerfelix WOW! I have this same symptom with a non-IKEA chair and hadn't yet been annoyed enough to figure out the cause. Thank you!  @haeckerfelix lol, my blanket at home reliably shuts off my screen for a second when I make my bed. It's quite clear though because it's audibly sparking the static electricity  @YaLTeR @haeckerfelix i never heard of this effect. I also don't understand what exactly is happening here  Gas lift office chairs generate electromagnetic interference on poorly shielded HDMI cable. Videos demonstrating the phenomenon went viral early 2020 https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/09/office_chair_emissions/  @GnoeJuan @haeckerfelix Another person shared a link to research paper from 1993 about Furniture ESD: https://toot.cat/@vivia/110272783275667799 "A New Type of Furniture ESD and Its Implications" by Douglas C. Smith @haeckerfelix So this might be why my computer screen has been randomly going blank in the past two years. Happened at least 2-3 times per week recently. So it might be the chair. 😂   @haeckerfelix Have you tried waiving a towel at it while shouting "Cooeee! Mr Spaceship!" Worked for Arthur and Ford with a similarly perplexing problem that turned out to be more of a time paradox than an intelligence test. @haeckerfelix Whoa. I had exactly the same problem - except with a completely different chair. It disappeared once I got a new monitor, which apparently isn't as sensitive to ESD as the old one...  @haeckerfelix I had the exact same issue with another IKEA chair! But I didn't know it was the chair until now. All I know is that my wife's chair turned off every time I got up. (I was right next to her until) Do you really think it's ESD? @haeckerfelix interesting, I get these brief black screen moments, I assumed they were micro-power cuts, as my UPS tends to kick in for a couple of seconds at the same time.  @haeckerfelix there are (or used to be) anti-static sprays and you could put that on fabric to reduce static on the fabric. Grounding metal frame may help, but if probem is between fabric and your own body, then grounding metal frame may not do much. @jfmezei @haeckerfelix @haeckerfelix a similar thing happens to me with my Steelcase Leap 2! I got the “billiard table” upholstery and the ESD will wake a computer from sleep that’s like ten feet away.  @haeckerfelix should read "chair not fcc (?) Compliant" :-) or who is the not refering to "may not produce harmful interference"? As the chair isn't an electric device it doesn't need to be tested I guess.. @haeckerfelix Yeah that's a well known problem. @haeckerfelix I have this chair, but I never experienced this. But I already knew that some chairs, not only IKEA’s, can have problems with screens. @haeckerfelix Oh 😳so that‘s it. I‘ve been having this problem for years on my workplace. I always thought it was display related.  @haeckerfelix@mastodon.social OH MY GOD. @haeckerfelix My monitor does a similar thing where it blanks as if the signal was interrupted, and I've been unable to identify why, I was thinking there was a bad connection. But, thinking about it, it may have coincided with the timing of me adding an ikea cushion pad to my metal chair to aid in comfort. I'm gonna take the pad off and see if the interruptions stop.  @haeckerfelix I don't think you need to connect it to the ground; connecting appropriate two parts of the chair together should suffice. I would expect that the chair is not discharging any if that charge into air (it didn't have any spiky parts after all). @haeckerfelix have this exact problem with a secretlabs chair (for gaming... yeah right). I have 2x external monitors both very different, the USB-C powered one always reacts if I move, the mains powered USB-C to DP doesn't so frequently. Thought it was a crappy usb dock to start with but then I completely changed computer setup and the problem remained. @haeckerfelix 😂 That sparked a memory. JayzTwoCents had a video about it two years ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W62vlsIGzY4 Looks like properly grounding your chair was the only solution :(  @haeckerfelix |
Gregory's Server
That was the moment I had my doubts. So I got another chair and tested it with it. No problem, screen stays on.
Took the Ikea "MARKUS" chair again, sat down - screen went off again.
HUH?! My chair has a feature that automatically turns screens on/off? I guess nice privacy feature?