Charter Spectrum → [HSI] High Upstream Power Level (intermittent)

Hey all, little background first. I've had Charter HSI now since June of 2011. Had the occasional drop but it would always come back after an period of time, so I assumed it was maintenance of some sort. But recently, probably around 2 months now my internet drops like crazy (some days it's once or twice a day and others it's three or four times an hour every hour) and sometimes won't bother to reconnect even after power cycling my modem (which I have directly connected to my PC for diagnostic testing).

Now I've discovered the source is I'm getting T3/T4 timeouts and ranging issues because I have some issue going on with a high upstream power level that at least hits 57 (which my modem won't read anything above). Now that's where things get odd! All my other signals are perfect and when I connect and can use the internet it runs flawlessly, I just can't handle these disconnects every few minutes.

A few notes:

* I've connected my modem from the coax coming straight from the grounding block
* I've changed the coax from the grounding block to the inside to eliminate that as a possibility
* I've had this problem on 3 different modems (Arris one from Charter, A Motorola Surfboard 5101, and a Moto SB 6121)
* I've changed out my cat 5 a half a dozen times
* I've used two different computers to verify problem isn't card related
* I've had two service call appointments
- The first I cancelled because I found some bad Coax in my house (before I attached it to direct line in)
- The second a tech called me 5 minutes before the appointment start time and told me there were reports of this in my neighborhood and that it was outside my house. They were going to fix it (I felt like it was a line of bull that I got fed but whatever)

One of my earlier level reports when I was maxed out but still had internet: (I'm at work right now so I can't quite get a brand new one, sorry)

Bonding Channel: 226/225/227/228
Frequency: 573000000/567000000/579000000/585000000
SNR: 36 dB/36 dB/37 dB/37 dB
DS Modulation: QAM256/QAM256/QAM256/QAM256
DS Power Level: 0 dBmV/0 dBmV/0d BmV/0 dBmV

Channel ID: 2
Frequency: 31000000
Ranging Service ID: 2260
Symbol Rate: 5.120 Msym/sec
Power Level: 57 dBmV
US Modulation: [3] 16QAM [3] 64QAM
Ranging Status: Success

Channel ID: 226/225/227/228
Unerrored Codewords: 2638178/2638436/2638306/2638321
Correctable Codewords: 466/206/322/277
Uncorrectable Codewords: 1059/1074/1080/1111

Everything to me seems to be saying this is a problem outside of my house but the call centers just send my modem a modulation code and tell me it's gonna be okay and I'm getting frustrated to the point of cancelling my HSI with Charter and just going back to DSL. It was slow but at least it was pretty dependable! Either way thought I'd post this up and see what the gurus had to say before I make any disconnection calls.

Thanks!

PS. I'm in Granite City, IL if that matters any

Your modem's upstream level is way out of spec and your gonna need a tech to correct the issue. You may have more bad coax/connections, loose connections, corrosion/water intrusion, squirrel chew, etc.

All they need to do is "poll" your modem for its signal levels and it'll be plain as day in the results they see.

Demand a tech. The max upstream acceptable level is 50.

is "squirrel chew" the technical definition for that or layman's terms?

So it is just a matter of waiting for a tech!
Every time I've called or used my hotspot to chat with Charter when my internet is down, they pull the modem logs and signal levels and act like it's no big deal! I've had one woman, sadly I can't remember her name, who actually took me serious and said "yeah, that's way out of spec"...

Oh and yeah "Squirrel Chew" sounds technical enough. lol

Thanks for the help everyone, off to call charter again.

Layman's. Arboreal-rodent damage if you prefer technical terms.