Chosen Solution
Sadly, you’ll need to get an electrician in to check/fix your house wiring as you do need a good grounded outlet. This sounds like a classic case of cross-wiring. It’s also possible the line cord is bad. There are cheap AC line testers available to verify the outlets wiring. I would start there Lets look at this from an electrical wiring perspective we have a source (+) and a drain (-) which is also tied to the buildings ground. If the device is expecting a given blade (pin) within the power cord to be the + side then you plug it into the - side then you’ve cross-wired the device! As the iMac case is grounded you now have a live case (+) so when you touch it and have your foot on a wet floor which is tied to ground (-) you’ll get zapped! This is a case of bad power wiring. So why does other devices not encounter this problem? Not all devices have their cases tied to the negative side of the cord (-) we call these cases double insulated as they have no exposed metal surfaces that are electrically active. A hair drier is a good example. Even still it’s the way you plugged the plug in that also makes a difference! Again, your iMac presently is cross-wired. If you flip the cord plug 180 degrees that should resolve it. But, you might not be able to! Lets say you have a three prong grounded plug and the outlet is also designed to support the three prongs of the plug (but the ground connection is not connected as you stated). Then we can surmise the outlet is mis-wired! Here the brass screw has the White wire (common) when it should have the Black wire (hot). Here we can’t rotate the plug 180 degrees to move the expected + of the plug to the + side of the outlet. So is the fault the computer? No! It’s your houses wiring that needs to be fixed. Make sure you get a proper outlet installed and make sure it’s wired correctly!
I have a imac late 2013 27” and always felt the buzz when i touch it. Now my imac suddenly is not starting anymore and i cant feel the buzz either, i bought a new power supply and still the same. The led #1 keep blinking but nothing happend. So let me tell you how much i missing that lil buzz :-(
Put on some sneakers.
All metal cased Apple products do this. Nothing to do with house wiring. Wear rubber sole shoes and the problem goes away.
I have iMac mid 2011 although working perfect but i get the shock everytime I touch the key board or the body of imac. I got my wires checked & electrician declred them good. I tested with a tester & it gives out the light that current is leaking. My macbook pro 2017 also gives me shock. I think its something to do with 220V current countries (as it doesn’t happens in US) but Apple should address this issue once for all. Apple’s consumers live in every part of the world !
do you have a similar (or can borrow one) power cable? maybe the insulation is not that good. as you already know these power cables are shielded so no electric shocks at all. you, i think already know that, you can receive a similar shock touching plastic or some other objects, the electricity is coming from your body. P.S. Anyway keep on addressing this with apple. If you can find among your friends that in any room there is no carpet, not cold so you can be barefooted and try the same.
Harriethegeini This seems to be a common issue people are having. Only difference, people are having shocks while holding their smartphones. This type of shock is mostly coming from the battery and wireless connection. Anytime i have wi fi running or high data usage then i typically recieve a minor shock in my fingers or in the palm of my hands. The solution: wrap duck tape around the area where you feel the shocks coming from. It can look tacky or neat depending on your wrap job lol. Worked for me,now im shock free.
There’s no clarity on what’s causing the shocks. Some say the computer. Some say the wiring. Regardless of how your electrics are wired the computer should have a safety mechanism to prevent the shocks. It should close down. Update (10/03/2019) You should be able to use a computer in the normal way and not get shocked. Plus there is no warning when you purchase the computer that you should get your wiring checked. If this is the issue the company should state this.
