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What can cause this intermittent power level fault
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Old 29-04-2012, 09:52   #31
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

This is still happening they are refusing to replace the amp, due to them performing "reset work".

No certain TV channels or Internet since 2am this morning. (Thank god for an ADSL backup (not with Virgin Media).
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Old 03-06-2012, 11:46   #32
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

More than a month on this is still happening. A tech blamed resegmentation and said we had to wait for that to finish.

Happened again after the reseg work was finished. Next tech came out, looked at cardy still happening to everyone, passed onto networks. Networks did come to the box and did some work (there was a road sign out while he was working normal techs don't do that round here). Don't know what we were only off for a couple of mins in that period of work.

The connection then went again a couple of days later, but I couldn't contact the same tech so I I thought we will wait for it to happen again. The connection was fine for 2 weeks until Friday. Saturday I phoned while the fault was occurring and they sent a tech today where the process of passing to networks is happening again. He said theres no point moving us in the cab as thats already been done.

Is it because its intermitent and at varying times of the day they can't find the fault?

I asked if they did variable attenuators to drive our signal right up at the cab, put an attenuator on so the power levels are in spec and when the fault occurs change the attenuator down. He said they don't do them and it may not work as the levels might be dropping to that level and not by that amount.
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Old 03-06-2012, 12:42   #33
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

the most likely cause of this problem is one of two things.firstly it could be a 'rogue' piece of kit thats being switched on at different times of the day and causing 'noise' issues,if this is the case you would see it happening at pretty much the same times most days as we as users are habitual in when we use the internet (apart from those who have hubs/modems switched on all day and night of course).
secondly it could be a part in the amp in the cab thats creating the problem.here in the north west (ex nynex build) we have constant issues with whats called an F to KS,its a small part that feeds the RF on the forward path to the toner taps that your individual cables are connected to.(and similarly all the return path traffic goes back through it).
these create noise on the upstreams,in some cases they can actually 'knock' modems off (this includes set tops using the upstreams for on-demand).
you can chase this noise down the cascade but in a lot of cases when splitters are pulled and such like (to determine which way the noise is coming from),it just disappears and traffic returns to normal,or it just simply stops what its doing.
having said all this it seems strange to have taken so long to track it down (if indeed it is an F to KS causing the problem)
as i said thats with the ex nynex build/amps, im not sure what type of build yours is.
as a footnote,cardie is great for identifying SNR issues and what are called 'fixable/unfixable errors' but as an engineer trying to locate the problem it has to be occuring while your on the area.
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Old 03-06-2012, 13:17   #34
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

hi thanks for the informative reply.

my equipment is constantly on so I don't think my equipment is rogue it could be someone elses though. All the cabling in the house has been checked. One engineer said he measured the loss from the cab to the entry point of the house and he said there was hardly no degradation so he doesn't think its the line in the garden. (The green box is about 5m to the side of the property).

One engineer stated that theres was 62 devices connected to the box with a mac (we have 4 of them 2 tivo, 1 v+ and the superhub) and ALL are showing the same at the same time we are going offline in cardie. I know next door has their equipment replaced or upgraded (dont know which in this time period). This has been checked 3 times. 2 times it wasn't passed on to networks (or networks didn''t do anything) because of work going on in area. Third time it was like I said but I don't know was done. I saw him chucking some cabling away though. It is also apparantly only effecting our cab so the numbers of customers is low for it be picked up as a network fault.

The times of the day varies and the length its occuring varies as well so thats another it mainly happens during the night or early morning. (6-8am) but can happen during the day. Another thing is that if the power levels drop enough to cause it to disconect (sometimes it stays online and we only have picture breakup on tv) that a cold reset on superhub needs to be done. I've noticed the superhub contains SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to receive MAC SYNC frame within time-out period; if its online at the lower power levels and snr when it returns to normal.

One thing I have noticed is that during the last 2 weeks we had no downtime its been quite warm and now its cooler and its came back.

I've been promised a call back on Wed telling me what they found, or at least they looking at it. He said do not call customer services again as this fault is from the cab just connect him (mobile provided) for him to esculate it again.
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Old 13-06-2012, 17:10   #35
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

well I just had a principal tech out for this problem. They think the problem was fixed this morning and was affecting the wider area (at least 1900 homes) not just my cab for the last 2 months. Each cab and customers are expericing different issues and some will not notice it at all. Its something to with the return path being to weak although the upstream power level is not moving.

hes now in charge of the fault so if it hasn't fixed the issue he will make sure its fixed. I have a lot of data of thinkbroadband graphs and cm modem power level read outs. (2 every 5 mins by a perl script while pc is on) so he will use them if the issue is not fixed incase its a rogue piece of equipment causing it.

My account has been flagged also so if any engineer comes out again (if it happens again after its been marked as fixed) the history will be known so it will speed the issue of raising it again.
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Old 13-06-2012, 18:36   #36
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

nice one dude, I hope it gets sorted
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Old 14-06-2012, 14:03   #37
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

well its still happening. went off during the night/early morning. tech phoned and asked if we went off again said yes and he sent networks to try and fix issue said I would be totally off for about 10mins which I was. Then an hour later the issue returned for 45 mins. I have to wait for him to ring tomorrow now. number withheld on 1471 so I can't contact him in meantime.
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Old 04-07-2012, 23:08   #38
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

Well this problem is still occuring and has not been fixed. I had no phone call back either from the principal tech either.

For the past couple of weeks its been generally fine. The odd fluctuation every day or so for a minute or so I didn't inform them. Until yersterday and tonight where its now happening in peak time periods and 90% of channels are effected and broadband is unusuable (the snr fluctates between 7-33 on each channel and the modulation goes from qam256 to unknown and back to qam2repeat on all channels) the pwoer levels go to around -5 now instead of the deep drop to -15.

I have yet another engineer coming tomorrow. They had no record of what the principal tech has said and done (not suprised there.

I was speaking to someone from the next road who is having the same trouble as us. (They are in the same cab) Virgin came today and did a repull for them with the thicker cable. I don't think that will help us with being less than 5-10 metres from the cab (cab is outside of property to the side) and with a hdu installed.

Is this the stage I am going to have to contact head office to get this finally fixed? Or should I wait for what excuse tomorrow's engineer brings to the table?
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Old 04-07-2012, 23:14   #39
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

I had this sort of thing 9 months ago. They replaced the amplfier in the cabinet and that fixed it.
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Old 04-07-2012, 23:34   #40
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Re: What can cause this intermittent power level fault

i think thats the only thing they haven't done. It was due to be replaced and then they didn't do it for some reason.

If i get no luck tomorrow i think I'll contact head office via neil becketts email I think. What makes it worse they only gave me £15 compensation so far.
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