Fuse trips when unplugging from wall socket

Zombrex

At my mums house they have an PC and computer monitor plugged into an extension lead that then plugs into a wall socket.

Over the last few days when my parents unplug the extension lead the fuse for all the sockets in the house trips. This doesn't happen every time, but has happened quite a bit. The PC is always off when they do this, though they said the monitor might have been in stand by mode.

The wall socket was originally a single socket but years ago my grand father put in a two socket panel. So the immediate thought is that something has gone wrong with the socket due to bad wiring or something.

They are going to get an electrician to look at the wall socket, but I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and is there a common cause? I've never heard of a fuse tripping from merely pulling out a plug.

Thanks in advance

mikehammer67

wouldn't surprise me although I dont recall this happening ime

have you tried unpluging from
the lead first?

Bruthal

Sounds possibly like either the copper bars in the socket are clashing as plug is removed, or wiring behind the socket is shorting from slight movement.