Felix Häcker
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.
madgeface (she/her)
@haeckerfelix Woah - you just solved why my TV turns off when we get up from one part of our new sectional sofa. I hope you figure out a solution to the problem other than the obvious: reupholster the seat with a less static-prone fabric.
Felix Häcker
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?
Felix Häcker
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/
Felix Häcker
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:
Welcome to 2023 - Your Ikea "MARKUS" chair is not compatible with your screen 👏🤦♂️
Felix Häcker
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.
Graham :ohno:
@haeckerfelix
I had this exact problem about 5 years ago, but with a different chair. It's the cylinder (pressure change causes a slight static buildup/discharge, that's just physics) and my research found that (at least in my case) it wasn't the screen, but the connector. Specifically it was connected through a cheap passive HDMI to DVI adapter with poor shielding. If I used an all-in-one HDMI-DVI cable or a better quality adapter, it was just fine.
Hopefully this helps someone!
Felix Häcker
@mantuko Just to be clear, this is not my "solution", but what the user from the linked forum post did with their chair.
Stephan
@haeckerfelix The leader of hardware development told me about a similar issues with chairs that he had at a former job in the electronics lab.
And btw. what your are doing with copper foil etc. is the opposite of insulating. You actually try to short circuit the housing of the gas spring to earth. The electric charge produced by the gas spring then dissipates via the connection to earth (path to least resistance) before it builds up to become an emp and mess with your display.
Simran
@haeckerfelix I do have an IKEA Markus chair and one of screens does occasionally turn black for a few secs when I sit down. I even read that gas lifts of office chairs may cause problems with screens, but wasn't sure if it's an urban myth & looking into a different problem with a permanently bad signal (green fireflies). But the black screen I can now attribute to the chair instead of the cables or the screen. Why isn't it affecting all screens though, all three being the same model in my case?
owo what's chris
@haeckerfelix this is like a much more absurd version of the time i noticed my old phone was blinking infrared light all over the place for no reason and the remote sensor for my preamp from the 80s would catch it and turn on and off
Jeroen
@haeckerfelix I remember seeing this in videos of a Dutch office some time ago. They traced it back to the gas suspension. Bizarre.
clacke
Eric
@haeckerfelix Same problem with a completely different chair, which is already 20 Years old. I also suspect the fabric or plastic causing ESD charges. Any workaround?
Eric
@clacke @haeckerfelix Jupp, e.g. like this: https://www.ebay.de/itm/281845240247?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=707-127634-2357-0&ssspo=J-YY-fokSOu&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
clacke
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