TallNathan
join:2008-03-17
Charlottesville, VA
 ·Comcast
| TV throwing back electricity to my cable
Hello all,
I'm brand new to this forum. Saw a very instructive post similar to mine on this site here: »Getting shocked (electricaly) by a coax cable However, my situation is a little different. I'm hoping that someone on this list can help me out a bit...
Our house has a very simple cable setup - one wire coming into the house (and yes, it's grounded outside via a pole in the ground - seperate from the house's electrical ground). The cable goes to a splitter, which sends signal to the TV and the cable modem/router.
The modem/router has been working fine, except for area-wide service outages.
The TV, on the other hand, has had some big problems displaying certain channels - especially the low ones. The cable guy came today, discovered that a bit of cable wire was fried, which was severely reducing the signal coming into the house. So he put a new head on it, and hooked everything back up.
As he was connecting the cable box to the incoming line, it generated a bunch of sparks. We tested out various devices - the cable box, the modem, etc. - and the TV is definitely the source of the stray electricity.
Here's the weird thing - if I connect one end of a coax cable to the TV and touch the other with my finger, I don't feel the little zap that you're suppose to feel when there's loose juice.
The TV is fairly new - a flat screen Oleiva that we just bought six months ago. It's past warranty, but shouldn't be messed up yet. The cable guy thinks its power supply might have screwed up after the power went out during a recent wind storm. But that seems implausible to me, especially since the TV still works fine in every other way.
The house is definitely older - about 80 years old. But the electric and everything was very recently renovated. In fact, I just had a home inspector here six weeks ago before buying the place. He had his act together, and he didn't note any problems with the electric of any sort.
Any thoughts ya'll? Or even any way to troubleshoot this problem?
Do I need to get another TV? (expensive... sigh...)
Would a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) help me out as a "power conditioner"? Perhaps it could regulate any loose juice that's coming out of the wall socket.
Anyway, thanks for any help you can suggest. |
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claydean
join:2003-04-22
Boone, IA
clubs: | You stated that the cable is separate from the electrical ground. That may be causing a difference in ground potential allowing the electricity to try to ground via the coax plant. |
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TallNathan
join:2008-03-17
Charlottesville, VA
·Comcast
| Hi claydean,
Thanks for the reply -- I'm not sure if that's the problem. I plugged the TV into an outlet on a different circuit in my house, and there's no problem with stray electricity coming out of the TV through the cable. And the lower channels that were "snowy" due to electrical interference are now just fine.
I've been discussing this over on another forum, too: »TV seems to be throwing electricity back to the cable
Anyway, if you've got any other ideas, I'd love to hear 'em!
~Nathan |
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MacLeech
The one and only
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
| Use an outlet tester, make sure the outlet is wired correctly.
»www.professionalequipment.com/ha···testers/ |
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claydean
join:2003-04-22
Boone, IA
clubs:
| reply to TallNathan
Where I was going is that it appears that the outlet was using the coax plant to ground. This can happen with poorly wired outlets, poor grounds, or difference in ground potential. The phone, coax, and electrical should always have a common bond to common ground to prevent ground loops. |
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burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
Broken Rail | reply to claydean
Best answer right there...
Your cable system should be bonded to the electrical ground |
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brianl703
join:2004-02-26
Manassas, VA
| said by burner50  :Best answer right there... Your cable system should be bonded to the electrical ground That is required by the NEC. Cable companies used to be terrible about just driving a new ground rod and grounding the cable to it without bonding it to the building ground. |
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Clearpix
join:2008-01-17
Wilmington, DE |  The cable at my old house was bonded to the gas meter when I moved in. They changed it soon as I pointed it out to them. Talk about scary! |
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burner50
Pinlifter
Premium,VIP
join:2002-06-05
Broken Rail | I've found that before...
Bonded to a gas line right, Somebody thought it was a water line. |
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MacLeech
The one and only
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
| reply to Clearpix
said by Clearpix :The cable at my old house was bonded to the gas meter when I moved in. They changed it soon as I pointed it out to them. Talk about scary! Bonding to gas??? phhhh.... I know of two techs who DRILLED through it... one a gas pipe in the wall, the other a gas meter on the other side of the wall.
Not sure how, I wasn't there, but I figured they'd stop drilling if they hit metal... guess not. |
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beerbum
Premium
join:2000-05-06
Here!
·Comcast
| reply to burner50
said by burner50 :I've found that before... Bonded to a gas line right, Somebody thought it was a water line. I've seen catv "bonded" to the heating oil inlet pipe a few times.. one tech (who is no longer employed) thought it was ok to strip 5" of the ground wire and stick the wire into the ground..
I could go on of the ingeniously stupid things I've found on QC's.. |
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