# Bolt problems again



## klyde (Feb 3, 2002)

Last month my Bolt had signal meter problems. It didn't work. I guess they sent an update. Yesterday I started to notice a lot of drop outs on all channels. Today I got down to troubleshooting. I have an outside antenna (CM) I bring the wire in to a splitter then my Direct TV OTA tuner and the Bolt. In another room I have a Romeo on a small indoor amplified antenna and in another room I have a Premier on another Indoor antenna. The DTV has a SS around 90 on most OTA channels (no drop outs). Both indoor antennas have a SS around 70-80. non has ant drop outs. The bolt has SS around 60-70 and I have lots of drop outs. I was watching the SS and I see its not steady bouncing around and occasionally drops to 0. I do not trust it. I have removed the splitter, I have changed the cable and I have added an amplifier to the input signal. NOTHING changes the result. The first bolt I bought I had to get replaced because of signal overload on some channels, now I have the opposite problem. Any ideas what to do next?


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## mblloyd (Feb 11, 2007)

klyde said:


> Last month my Bolt had signal meter problems. It didn't work. I guess they sent an update. Yesterday I started to notice a lot of drop outs on all channels. Today I got down to troubleshooting. I have an outside antenna (CM) I bring the wire in to a splitter then my Direct TV OTA tuner and the Bolt. In another room I have a Romeo on a small indoor amplified antenna and in another room I have a Premier on another Indoor antenna. The DTV has a SS around 90 on most OTA channels (no drop outs). Both indoor antennas have a SS around 70-80. non has ant drop outs. The bolt has SS around 60-70 and I have lots of drop outs. I was watching the SS and I see its not steady bouncing around and occasionally drops to 0. I do not trust it. I have removed the splitter, I have changed the cable and I have added an amplifier to the input signal. NOTHING changes the result. The first bolt I bought I had to get replaced because of signal overload on some channels, now I have the opposite problem. Any ideas what to do next?


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


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## DeltaOne (Sep 29, 2013)

mblloyd said:


> 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!


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

mblloyd said:


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


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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## DeltaOne (Sep 29, 2013)

justen_m said:


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


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


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

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.


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## mblloyd (Feb 11, 2007)

snerd said:


> 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


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

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.


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