US Cable Support > Time Warner Internet Services > Stray voltage causing Arris TG862G reboots?

Stray voltage causing Arris TG862G reboots?

Does unplugging the power on the TV connected to the DVR make the voltage go away? When that voltage is disconnected does the packet loss go away or the modem reboots stop?

I actually installed a splitter I had sitting around, a three way that a tech left for bring down my signal for my modem, so its a three way all -5.5dB splitter, and strangely the voltage is gone with it connected between the tv and coaxial. There was never packet loss, it just spontaneously reboots itself and refuses to stay on for more then 2 days. We also had to swap out of Samsung dvr because it was acting up somewhat so that is fairly new.

The tv was turned off(not unplugged) and the dvr was unplugged, but connected to the box via hdmi, I will have to find some time later to try that. We also have some sort of rca protection power strip for most of our devices hooked into the power(DVR included), but the tv connects directly into the wall.

So you'd say there should not be that much voltage in the coaxial, correct? Do you think this could cause the high uncorrectable errors I've been seeing?

It says Antronix CMC2003BH-A on it. with three -5.5dB ports, I believe its a balancer, I know it takes away from downstream and puts the power on the upstream.

Not a "balancer" just balanced meaning the signal losses on all output ports are the same. Looking up the spec sheet would seem to indicate its power blocking but Antronox is really general it's it description.

Either way you should locate the source of the voltage and fix or remove it.
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Two is one, one is none. If it's important, back it up... Somethimes 99.999% availability isn't even good enough.

Ah well that makes sense, well could this be a bad splitter? Because the modem rebooted itself three times in less than 60 minutes with the error under PacketCable(MTA) Events "65517 ConfigFile - BadParam" at 14:20, 14:25, and 14:29, which the other TG862G did as well. I recall having the tv unhooked while it rebooted itself at least once, but I may just be too tired to recall correctly.

So I have replaced the main one splitter with a BPI BSP1003D 3 way splitter with the same loss per port, -3.5 and two -7's. Also I'd have no idea where to look for the leak, I looked back where the cable runs and saw a few power wires, but not touching any as far as I can see. hmm okay I read more, so it could be a swapped power wire too, I'll have to have that looked into.

This all started after the fiber cut, some farmer cut the fiber between us the the cmts the next day my modem started to reboot itself, only once, but that is when it started, the support guy called them artifacts, but I doubt they would last this long and with two different modems.

reply to DrDrew
DD. Doesn't power passing refer to allowing bias to pass on the center conductor? Sounds in this case the OP is looking at leakage currents to the TV chassis, and that would be on the coax shield. All splitters that I am aware of tie the grounds of all inputs/outputs together.

You're correct. The op originally posted about voltage on the center conductor when measured against ground. He then posted it went away when he installed a different splitter. That's why I brought up the power passing/blocking splitters.

I then muttled the issue bringing up "hot chassis" which normally refers to a normally neutral chassis with current passing through it. That would ground out through the outside or shield of the coax.
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Two is one, one is none. If it's important, back it up... Somethimes 99.999% availability isn't even good enough.

OK, went back and reread. He did say the center conductor. 33-37 VAC on the center conductor could cause some major problems indeed. Can't imagine what could fail and cause that situation (well I can imagine, but it's a stretch )

To the OP: Is that voltage ONLY on the center conductor or is it also on the shield?

Thinking perhaps he has an open shield somewhere before the ground point and current leakage from some line powered item.

Well I was getting like 3volts ac before, but I did not use the ground on the water pipe for that one, It felt like a 9volt dc battery when I grounded myself to the floor, which is in turn grounded to the Earth. But it never occurred to me to try the main ground(solid copper cable connected on to cold water pipe) with the multimeter on the center conductor at that time, since I did not find that high of a voltage... I do remember touching the ground on the F-connector and got a bit of a shock, but not as much as the 30volts AC, which I felt a bit when testing it with the multimeter.

Seems my correctable and uncorrectable error count has not gone up since I passed out, so that is a good sign. Actually I just had to reboot the modem because the phone is not working and the correctable errors go up slowly, which not really a problem, but i'm sure uncorrectable errors will show up later. Also could this fry modems or just cause issues such as the reboots I've talked about or both?

EDIT: I wonder if a bad Ethernet cable could cause my modem to reboot as well? I kept having freezing with my CAT7 cable when I vnc into another computer on the local network and rebooting the modem did not fix it, but using my trusty usb ralink wifi adapter its completely fine.

There should be no voltage present on any of your 6u cable. If your wires are fished thru your walls than one of your cables might be touching an AC circuit. 6u should be atleast 11 inches away from any AC in your home.

I would say that AC on your 6u line is feeding back into the system also and making your modem reboot. Make sure your DVR is not pushing out voltage for some reason, plugged and unplugged. Make sure there is no voltage coming in on the DROP. From the pole to the house.

Actually this coaxial goes through a hole into the floor and downstairs to the main splitter, it doesn't goes through any walls, but it goes between two floor boards and its not easy to get into.
Getting the power wire 11" from the coaxial is not possible in this house without rewiring some of the power wire, now I already looked where the wire goes and saw 3 wires within 11" of the cable, but its impossible to get to without ripping the cold air return, which is not going to happen. I also didn't see it touching the coaxial as far as I could see with a flashlight.

I was thinking since most of the power wire isn't marked, so you have to guess whats the hot and the neutral, which could be switched up for some reason and that would need to be fixed. We already switched out the dvr box like two weeks ago so I doubt that is causing the issue.

I've tested the drop the same way I found the 30-37volts AC through the cable and nothing shows up. I am also waiting to see if the splitter has stopped the rebooting of my modem, and if it has then I will have to look at the outlet this weekend and make sure its wired correctly.

EDIT: here in a picture of the coaxial route: »dl.dropbox.com/u/38348368/100_2465.JPG
You can't see that far but it just goes up through the floor and you can see how close the power wire is.

Actually its old pre-romex, its rope covered like that kind of wire, buts its two solid copper wires in a single covering, with no knobs or tubes and its bundled together with that rope covering and has no ground of any kind of course. The 240v lines are made of the same material, but are larger.

reply to scififan68
»www.electriciantalk.com/f2/volta···e-29936/

reply to scififan68
DrDrew, So I unplugged my tv and hdmi from the dvr box and got no voltage, next I plugged in the hdmi with the tv unplugged and get 16volts ac instead of 30 something. This whole time the DVR is plugged in and the tv is hooked directly to the outlet. Next I plugged both the dvr and tv to our power strip and get 36volts AC and finally I removed the power strip, and plugged both straight into the wall and get like .001 volts AC, which should not harm anything. Would you say that the power strip is shot and needs to be throw away? That is the conclusion I have come to.

Leave the power strip out and see if you still have issues, or replace the power strip with another one and make sure the new one doesnt cause voltage on the 6u line/s.

We got a new power strip, its a CCI surge protector power strip and its plugged into the other outlet and not where the tv is plugged on, but must be the same circuit and today I had jumps in errors(mdd timeout) and the DVR froze like it has before and refused to change channels. I tested for voltage and found 14volts AC from the coaxial and its gone after I unplugged the different and new power strip. We may have to ground the outlets for the tv and devices, because the current ungrounded wring is not working correctly with power strips.

Anyone else ever have issues similar to this? I'm trying to understand why this is happening, and its getting to the point where we will have to rewire these stupid outlets to a grounded and to a different circuit entirely!