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Most pins I have seen have all of the external metal parts connected to the ground braid which should be connected the ground prong on the plug. Is your ground prong still on the plug? Is your outlet actually grounded?
See if a VOM shows continuity between the ground prong of the plug and the lockdown bar.
Quoted from Manimal:Given his comment about sliding off the couch and building a charge, I would guess the pin has a ground...otherwise it would not have arched. Grounding the pin keeps IT from shocking you if there is a short (takes the path of least resistance), however there is no way to protect yourself from building up a charge outside of maybe metal spikes in your shoes. Now the bigger question is why the electrostatic charge affected the machine. It obviously grounded through the wire harness, which is possible, depending on what was touched first.
I would disagree with this statement. The neutral prong of an outlet will also work just fine as a "ground". The neutral and ground wire are connected at the main service panel, so either wire will make a fine "ground" for a built up static charge.
If I was making a bet I would guess that the OP's pin either has the grounding prong cut off of the plug (commonly seen) or that his outlet is not correctly wired and does not actually have a ground (common depending on where he lives. In my part of the country we are full of homes that were built before grounded outlets were used, so it is common to see homes "upgraded" by installing a 3-prong outlet but not actually ground the new outlet.)
Quoted from golfingdad1:Dumb that up for me...
Terryb, thanks for beating me to an explanation. I use the term VOM (short for Volt-Ohm-Meter) because I use old analog test meters, not the "fancy" new DMM (digital multi-meters). They are all doing the same thing, testing for voltage and continuity. I happen to like the old analog test meters more because they give an instant response and most cheap DMM will not respond to a quick/short input.
You don't even have to buy one of those one trick pony outlet testers if you are cheap like me. Just use your VOM (or DMM) and see if the hot (that would be the narrow slot, if it is wired correctly) on a duplex outlet and the ground hole show ~110 volts AC when you put a probe into each hole.
Though perhaps I should NOT be encouraging people to become novice electricians. I take back what I just wrote, if you don't understand wiring enough to already know the test I just described, just go buy the $5 duplex outlet tester from you local store (you can pay ~$9 and get the "deluxe" one with the button that will let you test your GFCI outlets also.)
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Bellefonte, PA