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When working on my laptop connected to power and lightly touching the right corner with my forearm, I can feel small shocks which are uncomfortable, almost painful. Is this normal?

It happens under all these conditions:

  • HP Envy laptop
  • Macbook Pro 2017
  • Macbook Air around 2014
  • Three different flats in Hong Kong + office
ocrdu
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Roman Plášil
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  • does it feel normal to you? – jsotola May 08 '20 at 06:57
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    it sounds very odd ... it is strange that you would experience the same thing with three different laptops ... do you have any medical conditions? – jsotola May 08 '20 at 06:59
  • do you have any sticky labels on the laptops that may be pulling the hair on your arm? – jsotola May 08 '20 at 07:02
  • Sounds possible with some types of power supplies or wrong grounding. Which type of mains plug your chargers have, ungrounded or grounded plug? If they have grounded mains plugs, are you connecting them to grounded mains outlets? – Justme May 08 '20 at 07:10
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    Does this answer your question? [Feeling a tingling sensation by touching stuff, Is this safe?](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/478607/feeling-a-tingling-sensation-by-touching-stuff-is-this-safe) – Andy aka May 08 '20 at 08:04
  • In all cases it's the British power plug with 3 prongs (BS 1363 it seems). I have also tried connecting directly to mains socket, without any extension cable but no difference. The macbook is very smooth and I'm not using any stickers. – Roman Plášil May 08 '20 at 08:16
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    I should have been more clear since it is a British plug. Is the ground pole actually metal so it makes contact, or completely plastic so it is only used to open the safety mechanism? – Justme May 08 '20 at 09:18
  • The middle pole is metal (original Apple adapter). I can't tell if the apartments sockets are grounded but that's probably a reasonable expectation? No medical condition on my side ... that would be even weirder imo. – Roman Plášil May 08 '20 at 12:27
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    It's likely that you have no ground connection to the adaptor and are experiencing currents passed via the 2 x Y filter capacitors. See [these SE related answers](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/search?q=user%3A3288++x+y+capacitors+filter) – Russell McMahon May 08 '20 at 13:12
  • That sounds like it is coming from a lack of ground connection. Possibly leakage, but that is unlikely. – EnderSlayer7692 Oct 05 '22 at 02:14
  • I have the same issue with a used Macbook Pro 2014 I bought. When I touch the chassis next to the keyboard I can feel a continuous minor electric shock. Doesn't happen if I touch the keys or the mousepad. I forget if it's all the time or only when the charger is plugged. – ee_student Nov 13 '22 at 10:17

2 Answers2

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Get a multimeter on the job and see whether the problem has numbers attached.

Dirk Bruere
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That's probably due to current leakage. Current is somehow not flowing through the intended path, so there may be some sort of short circuit or damage from the inside of your laptops. In that case it could be a grounding problem.

Answers on this forum https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-case-of-my-laptop-often-give-me-an-electric-shock could be helpful too, though most of them basically repeat what I've already said.

Archan6el
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