Iphone 4 - electric shock while charging!

King Ian

Hi - I've had two very scary moments this week.

My iPhone 4 is connected to my PC and charging, and when I picked it up just now I got a small shock from the end of the phone. This happened a couple of days ago as well.

It felt about twice as strong than the kind kind of static charge you get when you get out of your car.

Is this something I should be seriously worried about? Suffice it to say I've unplugged the thing from my PC

ironclaw

King Ian wrote: »

Hi - I've had two very scary moments this week.

My iPhone 4 is connected to my PC and charging, and when I picked it up just now I got a small shock from the end of the phone. This happened a couple of days ago as well.

It felt about twice as strong than the kind kind of static charge you get when you get out of your car.

Is this something I should be seriously worried about? Suffice it to say I've unplugged the thing from my PC

The ground return to the PC could be at fault. The metal band on the iPhone 4 is grounded (I could be wrong, but I'm almost sure). Does it happen when connected to the wall charger?

Quackles

Mine did that this week too, coincidence!

Matt Bauer

Are you sure it wasn't just static electricity?

ironclaw

Matt Bauer wrote: »

Are you sure it wasn't just static electricity?

That was my next guess.The phone would be grounded through the PC.People wear more synthetics etc given the weather.Unless you can replicate it at will, I'm guessing static

King Ian

It's never happened when plugged into the wall.

It may be static.....but it felt like more than that that. As I said it was much more of a jolt than the usual static shock you get from your car etc.

Quackles

Personally, I'm blaming the delightful fleece pullover I was wearing at the time... Mmmm, fleecy...

_Whimsical_

I find that when I charge my iPod touch via usb it buzzes or vibrates a bit.If someone touches it while it's charging and you touch them you can feel the electric buzzy feeling going through them. It's quite a freaky sensation and not something I've encountered charging anything else by USB.

I saw someone posting in the medical science forum here a few months ago that he was giving his children very bad electric shocks if he touched them while he was charging his iPod from his laptop and using the laptop with it sitting on his knee. I read something similar on another forum too where someone had the same issue and discovered it was caused by the outside white covering on the charging cable being frayed.

I definitely don't think it's solely due to static electricity OP.

Shield

Hello Akram. I am Shield (Police Officer) from Ireland.

I think it would be highly, highly unlikely that your iPhone had a high enough voltage being charged directly from a USB port to have given you an electric shock. I think it was probably just a bit of static discharge.

Welcome to boards.

culabula

Hello Akram. I am Culabula, Moderator of this forum.
And as a former owner of three Sony VAIO, I'll be watching closely.

dloob

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

I find that when I charge my iPod touch via usb it buzzes or vibrates a bit.If someone touches it while it's charging and you touch them you can feel the electric buzzy feeling going through them. It's quite a freaky sensation and not something I've encountered charging anything else by USB.

I saw someone posting in the medical science forum here a few months ago that he was giving his children very bad electric shocks if he touched them while he was charging his iPod from his laptop and using the laptop with it sitting on his knee. I read something similar on another forum too where someone had the same issue and discovered it was caused by the outside white covering on the charging cable being frayed.

I definitely don't think it's solely due to static electricity OP.

Are you charging it with a laptop?
Some of the power supplies don't have an earth and just earth though the neutral.
I have a Dell XPS with no earth on the power supply, when it is plugged I can get a buzzing sensation from running my fingers over the metal parts.
Plug it out and it goes away.
The neutral line is sometimes at a slightly different potential to real earth, the difference will flow through you if you touch metal parts.
I guess when the iphone is connected it has the same floating earth as the laptop so touching its metal sides will have the same effect.

coylemj

There is no earth on a laptop, the connection from the power adapter (the brick) to the laptop is DC with two connectors, positive and negative. I don't think either of the DC terminals provides a ground.

Combine that with the fact that most laptops have rubber strips underneath to keep them a fraction of an inch off the work surface for ventilation purposes and you have a classic storage device for a static charge.

If static electricity builds up, the only way it can discharge is through the user and the metal strip around the iPhone looks like it's acting as a lightening rod, when you touch the iPhone you provide an earth for the static.

Wear a good pair of wellies next time you charge the iPhone

Allard

Hi there,

I'm having the same issue. My Iphone 4 is connected thrue a USB cable to my Imac 27".
When is touch it while it's connected to my Imac it gives a light electric shock. No joke.

What can i do about it? Sue Apple :-).

Cheers,

Allard

Stainless_Steel

Allard wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm having the same issue. My Iphone 4 is connected thrue a USB cable to my Imac 27".
When is touch it while it's connected to my Imac it gives a light electric shock. No joke.

What can i do about it? Sue Apple :-).

Cheers,

Allard

You're looking at 5V. Wouldn't worry.

Allard

I know it's only 5V and I couldn't care less but a phone should not give any electric shocks in my opinion. .

coylemj

In the office in the 1990s we got this all the time from the older desktop PCs and mainframe 'dumb screen' terminals which had metal shells. The solution was to add moisture to the air, either by the use of plants that got watered now and again or a humidifer or (budget solution) put a saucer of water on a shelf and let it evaporate.

If the air in your house is too dry, static will build up on metal devices connected to electrical sources and the only way it can discharge is through the body of the first person to touch it.

Get a pot plant and sprinkle some water on it every so often - problem solved!