Chosen Solution
I recently moved in to a new appartment, and I noticed that whenever my fridge was powering on (the heat exchanger that is), in those sporadic moments one of my displays would turn off too (27inch external one). By fridge powering on, I mean that obvisouly the fridge is always on, but the heat exchanger inside is triggered only if the temperature rises beyond a point. As it should be. But when the heat exchanger comes on and the fridge makes thing lightly buzzing sound, right at that moment, the 27inch display would turn off and on again. That was with one laptop and using a second monitor externally.
I switched ports, cables and today I changed computers (went from the laptop to the desktop). In this new setup, I have the 27inch monitor mentioned previously and an extra one (34inch) plugged in the computer. Now, the 34inch monitor is doing the same thing as the 27inch one did with the laptop, but the 27inch one that I had used with the laptop is behaving normally now, so I am stumped as to what could be the cause, as nothing is common between the setups, except the 27inch monitor (and that monitor was only turning off and on when it was connected to the laptop. now it’s the 34inch monitor that is turning off and on again)
When displaying in fullscreen a black page, I can see just barely some lone pixels flickering to a white-ish green, many times per second (on the 34inch one) randomly all over the screen. Im just an aspiring software dev who is an ex chef, so my electrical understanding is limited, but I feel like the problem is with the electrical wiring of the apartment power outlets? (a mini surge perhaps is happening when the old fridge’s heat exchanger is turned on?) I tried different plugs in different rooms and the same thing keeps happening with at least one monitor no matter if is is connected to the laptop or the desktop.
I saw that perhaps dust buildup can cause something like this, but the monitors are relatively new, plus the behaviour is not consistent; on the desktop it is the 34inch one that has the problem, on the laptop it is the 27 inch one.
I am stumped, so any insight is much appreciated. Thank you
Hi @disco_chef , Sounds like the refrigerator is dragging down the voltage when it is starting. This could be due to having too many outlets on the one fuse or too many devices connected to the outlets and being on (even if only in standby mode) You could always connect an energy meter (examples only) and check what value the voltages drops to when the refrigerator compressor turns on. It could also be a faulty refrigerator compressor start circuit . Start by trying other appliances connected to the same power feed as the monitors i.e. wall power outlet on the same fuse from the power box and see if they have also an effect. An example might be an electric kitchen kettle or perhaps an air con unit (if you have one). A lot of these are 1800-2000W units (air cons are more) and a refrigerator probably draws the same power but for a shorter time (only on starting perhaps otherwise they would be too expensive to run for long periods of time). If no other appliance connected to the same power feed causes any problem then it may be the refrigerator.
