Tv aerial problem

sahj

The amp definately has power to it.... its an SLX6 and has a power cord.... we have 2 sockets in the attic, one for a light and one for this. I even switched them over just to be sure the socket was working.

The only thing I am still trying to work out is the amp has a red light on it- I am hoping this means its working and not some sort of standby colour! Yet to find this information in any of the product guides I have found online. Although I really can't see it being a standby/problem colour but that could be something to check out as my next step if this fails!

Appreciate the help.... hoping we can get this sorted without having to pay out!

Dont think we will get time to try my latest plan 2moro so will probably be wednesday now.

I will let u know how it goes.... keep your fingers crossed for me!

toastydave

yer red light means its on, you should be fine, good luck

A.Penny.Saved

sahj wrote: »

The amp definately has power to it.... its an SLX6 and has a power cord.... we have 2 sockets in the attic, one for a light and one for this. I even switched them over just to be sure the socket was working.

The only thing I am still trying to work out is the amp has a red light on it- I am hoping this means its working and not some sort of standby colour! Yet to find this information in any of the product guides I have found online. Although I really can't see it being a standby/problem colour but that could be something to check out as my next step if this fails!

Appreciate the help.... hoping we can get this sorted without having to pay out!

Dont think we will get time to try my latest plan 2moro so will probably be wednesday now.

I will let u know how it goes.... keep your fingers crossed for me!

Loftboxes don't have a standby mode from all the ones that I've seen so it will mean that it is getting power.

You can check whether it is the TV aerial itself or the cable down to the TV by taking a portable into the loft and use a cable directly to a couple of the outputs on the SLX6. If you cannot tune a channel then it will be the aerial. That will mean either getting the aerial re-aligned or swapping the lead to the old aerial.

If everything works on the portable then the next thing is to check the connections on the cable at the TV and the cable in the loft.

T_T_2

toastydave wrote: »

As a side note Freesat or Freesat from sky is missing quite a few Freeview channels.

Quest, Yesterday, Sky3 you have to pay to get these from Sky

Yeh....erm...all the great channels are missing like er... Yesterday and er.... Sky3 and erm... Quest. Some quality TV programming right there...:o

mikey72

The SLX6 has a few unusual requirements. Rather than re type them, have a read off.

http://www.philex.com/assets/downloads/products/119.pdf

sahj

Finally got round to trying to fix this today.

Connected the old cable in to the booster. Tried the new tv downstairs and nothing. Then tried the tv in daughters room and managed to work out which cable of the 4 was connected to her socket. Took the tv to the lounge, did the same thing, then to our bedroom and again we then worked out which cable went to which room and marked them clearly to save the hassle if we ever have to do something like this again!

It turns out the problem is def in the actual cable in the wall/socket as we tried all the connections on the booster via my daughters bedroom tv and managed to pick up a good signal on all points.

Plan C is to make a hole in our bedroom going straight down in to the playroom, then drop the aerial from our socket and if necessary buy a longer aerial cable to reach downstairs!

We figured this will be the cheapest, quickest and less messy of the options available!

Thankfully dropping the cable through the ceiling wont actually look as bad as it sounds as we can hide it in to the corner of the chimney breast downstairs so you wont really see it.

Honestly, things are never straightforward for us... wouldnt mind if we were good at diy etc but we are both pretty useless!

Oh, and to top it all, the built in dvd player has started playing up on the new tv so tomorrow we are taking the tv back for a replacement- thinking it will be better to buy a separate tv/dvd because the dvd part on this tv is so cheap/flimsy I cant see it lasting long.

Thats another 75 mins of my life wasted on this saga! lol

toastydave

if the bad cable is loose in the wall, you could tie a new cable to it and use the old one to pull the new cable through

asbokid

sahj wrote: »

Finally got round to trying to fix this today.

Connected the old cable in to the booster. Tried the new tv downstairs and nothing. Then tried the tv in daughters room and managed to work out which cable of the 4 was connected to her socket. Took the tv to the lounge, did the same thing, then to our bedroom and again we then worked out which cable went to which room and marked them clearly to save the hassle if we ever have to do something like this again!

It turns out the problem is def in the actual cable in the wall/socket as we tried all the connections on the booster via my daughters bedroom tv and managed to pick up a good signal on all points.

Plan C is to make a hole in our bedroom going straight down in to the playroom, then drop the aerial from our socket and if necessary buy a longer aerial cable to reach downstairs!

Ahh! stop there! don't buy anything yet.. test the cable...

Go back in the loft.
Remove the plug from the suspect coax cable.
Twist the woven copper shield around the inner copper core. That is B and D in the diagram below.

Go back downstairs, and unscrew the aerial socket wallplate.

Testing the connections on the back of the wallplate, use a multimeter to see if there is continuity between the two cable terminals.

If there is continuity then the cable is probably okay.

Return to the loft, untwist the two coax cable ends, return downstairs and test for lack of continuity..

if that test is okay as well, then the fault is in the wallplate. It will cost no more than a couple of pounds to replace.

A cheap multimeter like this one, with a continuity test mode, costs about £5 from places like ALDI or LIDL.

We figured this will be the cheapest, quickest and less messy of the options available!

Thankfully dropping the cable through the ceiling wont actually look as bad as it sounds as we can hide it in to the corner of the chimney breast downstairs so you wont really see it.

Oh, heavens above!

sahj

asbokid wrote: »

Ahh! stop there! don't buy anything yet.. test the cable...

Go back in the loft.
Remove the plug from the suspect coax cable.
Twist the woven copper shield around the inner copper core. That is B and D in the diagram below.

Go back downstairs, and unscrew the aerial socket wallplate.

Testing the connections on the back of the wallplate, use a multimeter to see if there is continuity between the two cable terminals.

If there is continuity then the cable is probably okay.

Return to the loft, untwist the two coax cable ends, return downstairs and test for lack of continuity..

if that test is okay as well, then the fault is in the wallplate. It will cost no more than a couple of pounds to replace.

A cheap multimeter like this one, with a continuity test mode, costs about £5 from places like ALDI or LIDL.

Oh, heavens above!

Appreciate the reply.

To be honest though for someone who isnt great at diy/electrics its not as simple as it sounds! If we had the multimeter then I may have given it a go but we dont.

Plus it will still cost money compared to my option of just drilling a hole and hiding the cable in the side of the chimney breast- which we would not be doing if it would look a mess- you wont even see it.

sahj

toastydave wrote: »

if the bad cable is loose in the wall, you could tie a new cable to it and use the old one to pull the new cable through

Good idea!

Will get my husband to check later and see if theres any give ... like Ive said though, Im happy for the cable to be dropped through the ceiling so at least we know we can finally fix this either way!