my room is next to the washer/dryer and I just noticed that when the dryer turns on my monitor’s image gets shakey or wobbly. Minimal, but enough to be annoying and even give me a headache sometimes. Is there anything (cheap) i can do to cut down on the interference?
Are they on the same circuit? (Shut down computer and monitor, turn dryer on(se we can be sure we have the right circuit), turn off circuit to dryer, see if computer/monitor turns on.) If they are move one of them to a different circuit. Easiest way would be an extension cord from computer/monitor to another outlet. This shouldn’t be the case, but you never know. I’m going to guess that the computer monitor and the dryer are against the same wall (the dryer is directly behind the monitor). In which case the motor from the dryer is playing with the monitor. The easiers soultion would be to pull the monitor off the wall a little. Even if you can get it an inch or two further and then go and pull the dryer off the wall as well, again even an inch or two. These extra couple of inches would probably make a good difference. Also you could try raising the refresh rate of the monitor.
I’ve already got the refresh rate at the least wobbliest. I’d noticed this problem a while ago but had just assumed that the monitor was going out. But today the dryer turned on and i happen to be staring at the monitor and watched it “jump” while the motor on the dryer cranked up and then settle into a wobble. The dryer is in a recessed nook in a hallway, with my room’s door directly opposite. my computer and monitor are not up against the wall facing the dryer. I’ll play with the circuits later; one of my housemates is doing his laundry right now (hence the dryer being on).
Unless the dryer is an ultra-small unit, it runs on 240 volts, (assuming electric heat) whereas your monitor is likely on an ordinary 120 volt circuit. That said, not all parts of a dryer use 240. Example: the drum motor is 120, as is the drum lamp, end of cycle chime/buzzer, and the control circuit/timer. 240 is only used for the heating element(s). If the dryer in question is gas fueled, then it is connected to a 120 plug for the components listed above.
You can try powering the monitor from another branch circuit with an extension cord to see if the problem goes away, but I personally doubt it will make any difference.
Your best bet is to purchase a small UPS which will electrically isolate your monitor and the rest of your 'puter from the voltage fluctuations and noise causing your monitor to behave as such.
I live in a remote rural area and was plagued by funky voltage changes. Got a big UPS-problems gone. Heck-I can stay online for an hour or so without power in the house if I kill the printers and scanner, just keeping on the CPU and monitor.
I could be magnetic interference from the motor, but it could be on the circuit or the specific location of the monitor, too.
I am a computer support tech for a public agency and had a call where a computer monitor would start dancing at random times of the day for 15 or twenty seconds at a time. Sometimes it danced harder than others. The monitor was against a wall, directly on the back side of an electrical panel. It turned out every time someone used one of the electric hand dryers in the public restroom, 40 or 50 feet away, but fed from the panel on the other side of the monitor, the monitor would jump. If the dryers in both the men’s and women’s rest rooms were used simultaenously, it REALLY jumped. The solution was to move the monitor away from the wall and the panel. I got major wow points from the IBM Engineer for figuring that one out! The dryers were 220 volt and on the same sub-feed, but not the same circuit.
I agree with 'Cats that a UPS will fix it, but it might be cheaper to move the monitor and see what happens.
I’m betting that it’s not the dryer motor causing electrical noise but rather the heating element causing the voltage to drop.
Too low voltage can cause the CRT to wobble. Motor noise causes sparkling or doys on the screen, not wobbling.