Forum Discussion

Dave9's avatar
Dave9
Contributor III
5 years ago

What causes T3 timeouts?

After several service calls, I finally got all of the issues with my connection resolved. There were multiple issues including bad exterior cable and bad amplifier on the pole. Everything was great f...
  • FatDaddyWampus's avatar
    FatDaddyWampus
    5 years ago

    The problem with those power levels is like I was saying earlier, it's just a snapshot.  A competent Cox tech can monitor in real time what your power levels are and see if there is fluctuation.  Your issue looks pretty similar to what I was dealing with (good TX-RX power, SNR, etc) and my problem started right after Cox split one of their nodes (Vegas) to ease congestion.  That's when I removed my only spiltter (was trying to keep RX levels closer to 0) and pulled a new cable to the curb from DMARC (3rd time).  Since then, I've been rock solid.

    I will say dealing with cox help over the phone or txt is a waste of time.  You need a good tech you can talk to face to face, because it seems you have the vocabulary to troubleshoot this, you just need a tech with more/better tools.

FatDaddyWampus's avatar
FatDaddyWampus
Contributor

You'll need to get a tech out that can monitor the power levels in real time.  Your modem will only give you a snapshot.  In the meantime, If possible, I'd simplify the whole path.  For example, I have one piece of direct burial RG6 from the street (via conduit) to my dmarc where it hits a bonded bullet, then from there it's a solid piece of coax all the way to the modem.  I removed all wall jacks and used low voltage cable feedthroughs at the wall gangboxes.  No splitters/taps/wall plates anywhere in the path to my modem (but all I have is internet)

I'm surprised you're not getting any Dynamic Range Window errors along with your T3's though.  Here's my power level snapshot (modem log is clear):  

Dave9's avatar
Dave9
Contributor III
5 years ago

I had been getting a ton of DRW violations before they changed the amplifier, and maybe I still am. The log has changed in a very strange way where only the most recent event seems to show up at the top, and everything else below it is old (2-3 weeks old). It's like it saved a lot of log entries from the first time I powered it on and doesn't ever write over those. Makes it hard to troubleshoot. Any tips for what I can say to support to make them understand the issue and get the right tech out? Like I said, my signals are amazingly good and I don't think many of them understand there can be a problem even with good signals.

It's strange because it all worked perfectly for about 10 days before the T3s started up. Seems to be at least 2 per hour but it's hard to say since I only get the most recent one in the log. I'm going to try doing a modem refresh even though I'm not sure if that really does anything beyond just a reboot.

Downstream Bonded Channels
Channel ID Lock Status Modulation Frequency Power SNR/MER Corrected Uncorrectables
5 Locked QAM256 807000000 Hz 9.6 dBmV 43.6 dB 0 0
1 Locked QAM256 783000000 Hz 10.1 dBmV 44.0 dB 0 0
2 Locked QAM256 789000000 Hz 10.2 dBmV 44.0 dB 0 0
3 Locked QAM256 795000000 Hz 9.7 dBmV 43.7 dB 0 0
4 Locked QAM256 801000000 Hz 9.9 dBmV 43.6 dB 0 0
6 Locked QAM256 813000000 Hz 9.4 dBmV 43.5 dB 0 0
7 Locked QAM256 819000000 Hz 9.5 dBmV 43.5 dB 0 0
8 Locked QAM256 825000000 Hz 9.0 dBmV 43.3 dB 0 0
9 Locked QAM256 831000000 Hz 9.2 dBmV 43.4 dB 0 0
10 Locked QAM256 837000000 Hz 9.0 dBmV 43.1 dB 0 0
11 Locked QAM256 843000000 Hz 8.8 dBmV 43.2 dB 0 0
12 Locked QAM256 849000000 Hz 8.9 dBmV 43.0 dB 0 0
13 Locked QAM256 855000000 Hz 8.6 dBmV 42.9 dB 0 0
14 Locked QAM256 861000000 Hz 8.6 dBmV 43.0 dB 0 0
15 Locked QAM256 867000000 Hz 8.4 dBmV 42.9 dB 0 0
16 Locked QAM256 873000000 Hz 8.2 dBmV 42.7 dB 0 0
33 Locked QAM256 357000000 Hz 7.8 dBmV 44.5 dB 0 0
34 Locked QAM256 363000000 Hz 7.8 dBmV 44.8 dB 0 0
35 Locked QAM256 369000000 Hz 8.0 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
36 Locked QAM256 375000000 Hz 8.0 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
37 Locked QAM256 381000000 Hz 8.1 dBmV 44.8 dB 0 0
38 Locked QAM256 387000000 Hz 8.2 dBmV 44.8 dB 0 0
39 Locked QAM256 393000000 Hz 8.4 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
40 Locked QAM256 399000000 Hz 8.4 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
41 Locked QAM256 405000000 Hz 8.5 dBmV 44.8 dB 0 0
42 Locked QAM256 411000000 Hz 8.7 dBmV 44.6 dB 0 0
43 Locked QAM256 417000000 Hz 8.7 dBmV 44.8 dB 0 0
44 Locked QAM256 423000000 Hz 8.9 dBmV 45.0 dB 0 0
45 Locked QAM256 429000000 Hz 8.9 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
46 Locked QAM256 435000000 Hz 8.9 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
47 Locked QAM256 441000000 Hz 8.9 dBmV 44.9 dB 0 0
48 Locked QAM256 447000000 Hz 8.8 dBmV 44.7 dB 0 0
159 Locked Other 300000000 Hz 7.6 dBmV 43.0 dB 2131560290 0



Upstream Bonded Channels
Channel Channel ID Lock Status US Channel Type Frequency Width Power
1 2 Locked SC-QAM Upstream 23500000 Hz 6400000 Hz 38.0 dBmV
2 1 Locked SC-QAM Upstream 16900000 Hz 6400000 Hz 38.0 dBmV
3 3 Locked SC-QAM Upstream 29900000 Hz 6400000 Hz 39.0 dBmV
4 4 Locked SC-QAM Upstream 36300000 Hz 6400000 Hz 39.0 dBmV



  • FatDaddyWampus's avatar
    FatDaddyWampus
    Contributor
    5 years ago

    The problem with those power levels is like I was saying earlier, it's just a snapshot.  A competent Cox tech can monitor in real time what your power levels are and see if there is fluctuation.  Your issue looks pretty similar to what I was dealing with (good TX-RX power, SNR, etc) and my problem started right after Cox split one of their nodes (Vegas) to ease congestion.  That's when I removed my only spiltter (was trying to keep RX levels closer to 0) and pulled a new cable to the curb from DMARC (3rd time).  Since then, I've been rock solid.

    I will say dealing with cox help over the phone or txt is a waste of time.  You need a good tech you can talk to face to face, because it seems you have the vocabulary to troubleshoot this, you just need a tech with more/better tools.