Very bad Directv install issue

[Claude Greiner]

I did an install yesterday on a huge house. No good way to run any wires. So I ended up going to wireless. Mini's and only hard wired the genie.

I finish the install and the mini at the furthest part part of the house and get a red light. Check the signal of the wireless video bridge and only got1 bar.

So spoke with the customer told him either hundreds of dollars to fish wire through his drywall ceiling basement or just wrap a RG6 around the house.

So switched out one of the wireless clients for a wired client and through all was good until I got a terrible shock touching the coax cable.

I didn't know what it was, literally there was a huge spark when the HDMI cable brushed against the back of the customers Tv.

Originally the system was on a ground rod, and I spent an hour this morning running a ground wire to the fuse panel to tie into the electrical ground.

So I go to the tv at the far side of the house and now there is no power to the outlet. I have the customer reset the breaker in the basement.

I plug in the wireless mini it works fine, tv works fine, but no indication of a picture... realize the HDMI is not connected.

The second I plug the HDMI into the mini client, boom a big spark and the power is out again.

So going back tomorrow with an outlet tester to see if the plug is not wired backwards.

The customer had a flood at his old home and the Tv just recently came back from the restoration company. So the Tv could be grounding out somewhere.

Also the Genie will not display most of the HD channels. I get a 721 message saying program not authorized.

The HD locals do not come in, but SD works fine. I get other HD Channels like ESPN but have the same issue on the movie channels.

The dish alignment is fine. Using a reverse band LNB.

Tried reauthorizations. Spent an hour screwing around with Tech support for dummies.

I'm almost afraid to plug the tv in again.

Any suggestions?

 

[cinsu]

Test for voltage on the HDMI and on the frame if the tv. Seen multiple melted boxes and fried TVs when there is voltage on an hdmi cable and it grounds thru the coax.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Claude Greiner]

Test for voltage on the HDMI and on the frame if the tv. Seen multiple melted boxes and fried TVs when there is voltage on an hdmi cable and it grounds thru the coax.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

U think it's the tv or an issue in another part of the house?

 

[Jimbo]

U think it's the tv or an issue in another part of the house?

I'm leaning toward it being the TV ....
Can you try a different TV at that location ?

 

[cinsu]

I'm leaning toward it being the TV ....
Can you try a different TV at that location ?

Polarity cube would tell you if outlets are ok but I would tend to lean towards an issue with the tv considering it's been recently refurbished.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AZ.]

or the home is missing a neutral and you have a grounding problem?...floating ground which would give the hot wire, from finding the correct voltage?....That tv could be looking for a neutral that dont exist?
Testing the tv is a great start, checking polarity on the receptical another.....I wouldn't wast much time on it.....sounds like they need a great residential electrician!

And what type of breaker is tripping?... GFI type? Ark fault? or just a regular breaker?

 

[primestar31]

They NEED an electrician out there NOW, to check this out! I'd say it's a house wiring issue, (hot or floating ground) and it should be gone through to find out for SURE.

Claude, maybe it's only the tv set, BUT, do you want to fry a bunch of brand new equipment to find out the hard way? You should REFUSE to go back before an electrician checks/fixes/certifies the house electrical system is 100% correct.

This might end up causing a death, and then YOU could possibly be on the hook when the lawyers start suing everybody they can in the hopes of getting a payout...

 

[jcrandall]

I had the same thought as primestar31. You're taking a big liability risk here by working on a home that may have a major electrical problem.
Should that home have a fire and burn the owner may claim your recent work was the cause.

Once that first spark happened it's really on the homeowner to get that checked out and resolved, be it the TV or the home.

 

[IcEWoLF]

I think its the wiring in the home, I'd suggest what others have, have the owner check with an electrician first before continuing the install. You don't want the whole house burning down or bunch of fried up equipments.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Checked it today with an outlet tester and the hot and neutral are reversed.

A matter of fact every outlet in the customers bedroom is reversed.

So then the customer asks me to reverse the wiring in his outlet, which I refused to do. Then he asked for a screw driver to do it himself.

I finally convinced him he has bigger issues If it's just 1 outlet...

So he goes to Home Depot to buy a long extension cord. Comes back an hour later with an extension cord with no ground.

I kid you not!

I had to hook up a surge strip, client, router, decca, and the Tv with a grounded outlet.

Of course he didn't have a cheater plug, so he ended up cutting the ground prong off the surge strip.

Then it gets even better. He had an old plasma tv with component video. I had to get the break out cable to work with the client. Get it hookup up and no sound!

I screw with the Tv for 20 minutes to realize there are no speakers on the Tv. I show the customer and he doesn't believe me. He finally gave me some bose speaker off an old surround sound and I got it working.

This customer recently had a flood so all his Tv's came back from the restoration company. Since they where all wall mounted, none of them have the stands. They are sitting all against the wall on the floor.

I have wasted more time on this job all because the customer was not prepared.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Then I did this guy a favor and hooked up his internet. He complains about his wifi not being strong enough.

It would help to spend more then $30 for each wireless access point. Ya think.

 

[primestar31]

I hope you got paid in cash, since being so clueless, if he redoes every outlet himself he'll probably be dead in the next day or two.

 

[stardust3]

Sounds like a mess.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Such a mess his house is...he really needs to hire an electrician to check all the wiring in his house to make sure things are safe so it doesn't catch a fire...

 

[Tecnicoloco]

Then I did this guy a favor and hooked up his internet. He complains about his wifi not being strong enough.

It would help to spend more then $30 for each wireless access point. Ya think.

Happens all the time when we help customers with other minor issues not related to the contract work

Electrical problems ? Call an Electrician

Wifi problems ? Call Geez Squad

And the list goes on and on.......

I found the following comments on the net

I am a satellite installation supervisor.

I have ran into this too many times.

The Samsung TV is the problem.

The newer models use voltage to communicate with the surround sound systems so when the tv is turned on the surround automatically comes on.

We teach our techs not to hook up to the HDMI1 slot.

Most TV's that have this feature use HDMI1.

I dealt with the issue today and it was a Samsung causing the issue.

It actually fried the receiver.

I deal with this issue everyday as a senior technicians for a big cable company.

Voltage will cause tilling, box reboots, modem reboots in another room, missed recordings, ect ect.
The reason it attacks the cable boxes is because the coax acts as the ground source since by law it must be grounded.

We techs cannot fix it but there is a way to divert the voltage.

What you need first is to verify that the power outlet is connected properly.

The fast way is to buy a 5 dollar polarity tester.

What you are looking for is that you have a proper ground and the right polarity.

Next you will need a grounded power strip with the two coax tips on it (the one with the three prongs and the two tips that look like where the cable connects to the back of the tv).

Third you will need a piece of coax cable.

Not that cheap stuff, just as a cable guy for a jumper.

So what we are trying to do is give the voltage the path of least resistance.

So you plug in the power strip to the working power outlet.

Next you take the coax cable and screw it in the back of the tv on one end and the other to the power striptips.

It does not matter if its the in or out but let's use the in.

That's it.

If you check it before and after you will notice the voltage gone.

Now, not all power strips are created equal so some may work some may not.

We started to test some on the field and when I can I will update you guys.

I have one Samsung and two Vizio's doing it.

All three have two prong plugs.

I have an old Vizio three prong plug that is not doing it.

It would be interesting if some members with new two prong tvs unhook your rg6 cable from your satellite splitter and check your center copper connector to ground and see what voltage you get


Credit to the authors

 

[DishSubLA]

And usually, these type of customers can afford an electrician and Geek Squad and whatnot to do the RIGHT and SAFE thing for their own protection. I know an HAVC business owner who was telling me how the guy with 4 high end sports cars and a huge state of the art house (lots of money) was just trying to pick his brain so that HE--the owner of the home--could fix the A/C himself, presumabley to save some money, and I think the repairs was only a few hundreds of dollars, not thousands of $$ repairs (that episode of All in the Family when Archie "fixes" the refridgerator). The HAVC business owner told him, "well, yeah, you might be able to manage and do it yourself, but you've got to remember, I do it everyday." I even had a neigbor who took apart his plumging thinking he can do the job, but later kidnapped MY plumber on MY money to take a look at his place. I asked the plumber when he returned what the neighbor's situation was, and he said in a soft voice, "Oh, he's got a mess over there," shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

Hey, I try to save money, too, but in some situations that are clearly over my head, I do not pretend to be a qualified plumber nor a qualified electrician, and ELECTRICITY is a SCARY thing. It is a monster--like fire--that we manage to contain in most circumstances but is just waiting for us to make a stupid mistake and kill us by shock, fire, etc. like a wild big cat lion or tiger in a cage who will pounce upon us and finish us off before we even knew it was coming.

Yeah, I hope you don't have many more like these, but it ALWAYS seems to be the affluent and rich who are willing to risk being cheapskates on VERY serious home safety matters.