Post
by Ven » 01 Oct 2025, 07:33
I think I might finally have clarity on this. My local cable operator (who’s also a self-taught electrician) told me that in our area, the neutral at the transformer has been floating for years. He’s had multiple pieces of equipment fail because of it and has already raised complaints, but nothing has been fixed. He even measured ~16V between neutral and earth during the day.
This matches exactly with what I’ve been experiencing since around 2015. Back then I first noticed strange behavior on my PC: things would feel out of sync, delayed, or “floaty.” Over the years I’ve rebuilt my system multiple times — swapped motherboards, RAM, PSU, even tested with different ISPs etc. The pattern never changed: right after a RAM reseat, CMOS reset, or fresh OS install, the system would feel perfect — smooth, responsive, in sync — but after a while it would degrade back into the same inconsistent state.
Now it makes sense. If the supply neutral itself is floating, then no matter what I do at home, my system never has a stable ground reference. That explains why heavy load makes the problem worse, why temporary fixes sometimes help briefly, and why the issue always returns.
In other words, it’s not just my house wiring — the supply itself is already compromised. Unless the transformer neutral is properly grounded, any fix I do locally is only partial at best.
Given that nothing has been fixed for years despite complaints, there’s also a possibility that this could be a deliberate negligence or even a way to inflate bills, though I can’t confirm that. Either way, the unstable supply is the root cause.