The 7th Artifact Activator?

[The Grim Sleeper]

So the Artifact lab has 4 devices (each of which has about 1 useful setting) for it's research, and you can hobo up a storm with batons, welders, a toolbox, a helpful borg or even your own grubby mits, but I still encounter a whole host of Artifacts for which I simply cannot find a stimulus, or even a 'faint noise'! And it's not a small amount either, roughly 60% of the Artifacts I drag into the lab are still sitting there, inactive, when the round ends. There is an old forum thread about how 'all artifacts can be activated in the lab', but that is over 2 years old, from before the 'faint noise' feature it would seem.
I've tried basic meta-exploits: eg 'tighten your grip on a small artifact' means it's an artifact water-can, 'inserted into something' usually means artifact powercell of matching size.
I've tried to get creative, put a handheld artifact into a mircowave. Didn't work.
I even went stupid; put the artifact into the oven: Very much didn't work.


At this point I'm convinced I am missing a big part of the Artifact stimuli. Or one of the devices in the lab isn't triggering it's response (looking at you heater-plate).

Anybody have similar experiences or usefull tips? Or is there possibly a very insidious bug in the Artifacts themselves?