Pencil sharpener interference? What?

OK, so I'm here at work right now. It's a pretty standard cube farm, movable walls and all that. My computer monitor sits next to my wall, and on the other side of that wall is my neighbor and his pencil sharpener. The monitor and the pencil sharpener were probably less than a foot or so apart. It's been moved since then.

The thing is, when he used the sharpener, it distorts my monitor like it's degaussing. It's really strange. They aren't plugged into the same outlet or anything, and nothing else has its power affected, so I don't think it's a circuit problem. My question is, does an electric pencil sharpener really put out enough intereference to screw up a monitor's display? I guess the answer is obviously yes, but shouldn't the monitor be shielded better than that? What would a sharpener even do that it intereferes so much?

edit: This isn't a "what should I do?" post. We moved the sharpener a little farther away and there's no problem now. More curiousity than anything else.

I had a really weird story as far as that stuff's concerned a while back at my birthday party.

My friends had all brought over their systems, so we had set up the game cube and the PS2 upstairs right next to each other. However, because my old house sucked as far as wiring, there were only 2 plugs in the all, one for the tv, one for the console, so we could only have one system plugged in at a time.

So, we plug in the ps2, and boot it up to put the game in to it, and guess what? The gamecube that's sitting right next to it, that ISN'T plugged in to the wall or anything, turns on also!! It was fricking crazy, so we move the ps2 over a bit away from the gamecube, and the gamecube turned off. Moved it closer again, and the gamecube turned on again! Fricking insane if you ask me

That's crazy Jeff.

Govt... I wouldn't say that's all that crazy. Where I work, they do some welding every once in a while about 25 feet away through 2 concrete block walls. My monitor starts to jiggle and buzz just slightly. It seems the smallest thing can set them off sometimes.

And just because I'm curious, do you have a CRT or a LCD? I'm on CRT here.

> Govt... I wouldn't say that's all that crazy.

Well I don't recall asking your opinion, jerkface.

Also, it's a CRT

Well I have a battery powered pencil sharpner that can distort the TV reception of things over 10 feet away.

didn't we talk about this before?

anyways, the sharpener when spinning is creating a relatively small elecrtomagnetic field, and that fscks up your monitor.

Electric pencil sharpeners seem to create a small magnetic field. I had a small magnet sitting on this table, and I also had a pencil sharpener. When I used the sharpener the magnet would start to slide towards the sharpener and stick to it.

Very wierd stuff.

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AH FRICK AXON!!! :eek:

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Originally Posted by axon

anyways, the sharpener when spinning is creating a relatively small elecrtomagnetic field, and that fscks up your monitor.

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That's basically what I thought.

Electric pencil sharpeners produce electromagnetic interference. Some pencil sharpeners are really bad at it, and can produce an EMF with a 10-foot radius. Some are really good though, and barely produce an EMF at all.

I simply use a pen.

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Originally Posted by Fordy

I simply use a pen.

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Same here, but then again, I never make a mistake.

get you cow-worker to use mechanical pencils and you'll never have that probelm again!

:D

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Originally Posted by DrakkenKorin

get you cow-worker to use mechanical pencils and you'll never have that probelm again!

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mooooo.....


hehehe, couldnt resist :)

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get you cow-worker to use mechanical pencils and you'll never have that probelm again!

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If you intended to quote Scott Adams, the correct terms is cow-orker.

o great, one of those.

I've notticed that whenever my apartment-mate (my dorm is more of a 2bedroom apt.) goes into his room, my monitor distorts for just a fraction of a second. Im guessing its the halogen light in his room, or maybe some other piece of equipment. The odd thing is that the electric pencil sharpner less than a foot from my monitor doesn't distort it at all.

It could be your roommate turning his monitor on.

Or maybe he's made an EMF gun. I'd call Homeland Security.