Bolt problems again

Sounds flippant, but i am sincere. Re-do your cable connectors

 

Just to chime in, that's a good recommendation. I've seen good results from simply going around my house and disconnecting and then reconnecting my cable connectors. It's my #1 go-to at the first sign of trouble.

I became a believer about ten years ago. I was having signal trouble and called my ISP. The first suggestion was to re-do my cable connectors. I decided to humor them and do it...and it solved the problem!

 

Why does this help? I know it does, I've done it myself, but why? How?

Sometimes the powerlevels and SNR reported by my cable modem get wonky, I get tons of dropped packets, etc, and simply unscrewing, removing, thne re-attaching the coax to the modem fixes things.

Maybe slight oxidation on the connector that gets rubbed off by removing and restoring? Some sort of grounding problem?

 

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My theory is it's the oxidation on the center conductor and/or on the female coax connector.

 

Checking the connectors is really important if the cables are old. Over time, the internal insulation can pull back into the cable, leaving an air gap. I've seen it on my own coax. The fix is to cut off the connector and crimp on a new one. Connector can also work loose, and oxidize as others have mentioned. I like to snug them up with a wrench, hand tight isn't quite tight enough.

 

Nothing like experiencing the problem makes one a believer in the fix. As you state CUT OFF THE OLD CONNECTOR. If practical have your cable company replaces all of your connectors. Second best, buy the crimp connectors and crimping tool both by Klein

 

Years ago when I would look at the center copper conductor on a length of coax, it would often look dark/dirty and give poor results. I had read somewhere about taking a pencil eraser and spinning/drilling it down over that center conductor until it was bright and shiny again. In most cases, it restored the picture quality.