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tims1's avatar
tims1
New Contributor
3 years ago

One of the weirdest problems I've ever seen

Not sure if this is of any use to anyone, just shows an example of a counterintuitive problem.

I hired a contractor to roof a small storage room attached to my house. I realized the day before he started that the coax from the splitter to the cable modem was routed over this storage room, so I thought it would be a good idea to move it so the roofer didn't have to work around it. I unscrewed the connector from the splitter, and removed the cable from the structure. I didn't do anything on the other end of the cable. Once the cable was off the roof, I ran it along the ground temporarily and reconnected it to the splitter.

When I did this, rather than booting up, the cable modem just started blinking all of its lights continuously. I removed the 12v ac adapter and reconnected it and the same thing happened. This was inconvenient because not only did it mean the internet was down but my home phone which is an Ooma box. The other cable from the splitter to the TV receiver worked fine the entire time. The tv and the internet connection had been working pretty much perfectly for a year before this event.

Cox assigned a technician who showed up promptly the next morning. He checked the signal at the coax to the cable modem and said it was perfect. He said the display on the modem indicated that there was something wrong with the power coming into it. I just so happened to have a 12v wall wart on one of my USB hard drives, so I attached it to the cable modem. The modem immediately started booting up, synced to the cable signal, and everything came up ok.

So basically the appearance was that disconnecting and reconnecting the cable at the splitter caused the cable modem ac adapter to become defective. The tech's only guess is that it was a fluke. The cable modem was a several year old model, and apparently, it was just coincidental that the ac adapter failed exactly at the same time I disconnected or reconnected the coax.

1 Reply

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III
    from the splitter to the cable modem was routed over this storage room

    Where is this splitter...outside?