Plugging in head phones makes monitors go dark for a second. Static electricity?

USB Docking Stations UD-3900
1

When I plug in my headphones into the jack on the front of my UD-3900, both to the external monitors (also connected to the UD-3900) go dark for a second and then come back.

What’s going on? Could this be static electricity and is it potentially harmful to any of the electronics?

My headphones are wired, Beats over-the-ear type but do not have a battery or noise cancellation.

2

Hi Ben,

Thanks for posting!

The behavior you describe is not typical nor is it expected, so our next step is to get some additional information and see if we can isolate the behavior further.

I know you mentioned you are using Beats headphones (thanks for including the detail!), but would you happen to have a different pair of headphones available to test with, say for example a pair of ear bud headphones included with a mobile phone? I just want to see if the behavior is consistent when using different devices.

Thank you,

Bob
Plugable Technologies
www.plugable.com/support

3

I think it is static electricity. Problem is not reliably reproducible by plugging in headphones. But sometimes it happens when I touch metal on my usb microphone. There is a snap sound and the screens go black for a second.

4

Hi Ben,

Thank you for getting back with the update, and I appreciate you testing with different headphones and sharing your result.

While the behavior you describe is outside of our control, you may wish to consider adding an anti-static chair mat to your work space to see if that helps with the behavior (of course we cannot guarantee this will resolve the issue).

Thank you,

Bob