So folks, don't forget to check if your Ikea chair is compatible with your screen. I'm not kidding. A thread 🧵.

I've had the problem with my new screen for several weeks now, that every now and then the screen goes black for a few seconds.

Today I had enough and wanted to investigate the problem. So I started changing all the cables, plugging the screen into a different socket, and and and. Nothing helped.

#ikea #chair #hardware #weird

The only correlation I could find was that the screen only goes off when my Ikea office chair is somehow involved.

So I suspected a loose contact somewhere. But no. No matter how much I wiggled the table/cables, everything was fine.

The problem was only there when I sat down or stood up, although the chair didn't even touch the table.

That was the moment I had my doubts. So I got another chair and tested it with it. No problem, screen stays on.

Took the Ikea "MARKUS" chair again, sat down - screen went off again.

HUH?! My chair has a feature that automatically turns screens on/off? I guess nice privacy feature?

I started to lose faith and couldn't find a logical explanation. So I searched the internet for "ikea markus chair screen problems" 🤦‍♂️

WAIT! I am not the only one with this problem!? Found the following (German) forum post:

https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/hauptmonitor-wird-sporadisch-kurz-schwarz.2060771/

Hauptmonitor wird sporadisch kurz schwarz

Hallo, Ich habe ein Problem, das mich nun schon länger verfolgt und dass ich somit nicht mehr auf meine Hardware direkt zurückführen kann. Grund: Das Problem bestand schon in der alten Wohnung und auch mit dem alten PC. Seit Auftreten wurden SÄMTLICHE Komponenten vollständig ausgetauscht: Der...

ComputerBase Forum

It turns out that the fabric seat cover, and/or the gas suspension creates such a strong electrostatic discharge (ESD) that my screen shuts off for a short time.

The solution? No idea yet, but it seems that insulating the chair with copper foil and connecting it to a socket (ground) might help, as you can see here:

https://www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/hauptmonitor-wird-sporadisch-kurz-schwarz.2060771/post-26745640

Welcome to 2023 - Your Ikea "MARKUS" chair is not compatible with your screen 👏🤦‍♂️

#ikea #chair #hardware #weird

Hauptmonitor wird sporadisch kurz schwarz

Hallo, Ich habe ein Problem, das mich nun schon länger verfolgt und dass ich somit nicht mehr auf meine Hardware direkt zurückführen kann. Grund: Das Problem bestand schon in der alten Wohnung und auch mit dem alten PC. Seit Auftreten wurden SÄMTLICHE Komponenten vollständig ausgetauscht: Der...

ComputerBase Forum
@haeckerfelix Oh yes, there's a white paper about this issue. https://emcesd.com/pdf/eos93.pdf
The Magic Switch · Issue #1232 · PDP-10/its

I grabbed this from http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/magic-story.html. I was thinking it should be in some ITS backup file, but I couldn't find it. Some years ago, I (GLS) was snooping around in the...

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The Best Debugging Story I've Ever Heard

Back in the early 80's, my dad worked at Storage Technology, a now-defunct corporate entity that made tape drives and pneumatic systems to drive these tapes at high speeds – for that period of time.…

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@robbystk @haeckerfelix Haha, IIRC there's a very similar story in https://suricrasia.online/iceberg/
The Cursed Computer Iceberg Meme

this is not a hall of shame. the intent is to awaken you to many of the peculiarities and weirdness of computers. hopefully, after reading these articles, you will have learned a lot and will embrace chaos.

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@lanodan How did I not know about this site?!
So many nuggets on there 😂💀