Troubleshooting your Cable Box

Written by Nick Smith


Unless you’ve recently moved from Alaska to Texas and you’re feeling a little homesick, chances are thatrepparttar last thing you want to see when you turn on your TV is snow. Combine a snowy screen with that loud, obnoxious static sound, and you’ve got a problem on your hands. Fortunately you don’t have to be techie to fix your cable box – just follow these simple troubleshooting steps to get picture back in no time.

Cable Box Basics

Make sure your cable box is plugged in. I know that sounds silly, but after troubleshooting these things overrepparttar 133361 phone professionally, you can trust me on this one. Save yourselfrepparttar 133362 time and embarrassment of calling a professional just to have them tell you to plug it in. That goes forrepparttar 133363 rest ofrepparttar 133364 essential equipment as well (i.e. TV, VCR or DVR if you’re runningrepparttar 133365 signal through one, etc.). It wouldn’t hurt to make surerepparttar 133366 TV is onrepparttar 133367 correct channel – usually channel 3 or 4 or one ofrepparttar 133368 input channels.

Make sure allrepparttar 133369 cables are connected. Even if you’re TV and cable box are both turned on, you won’t see a picture unless they are connected. Check each connection to ensure it is tight and that none ofrepparttar 133370 wires or connecting pieces is damaged. Also check to see thatrepparttar 133371 connections are all correct – meaning, video and audio should be going out of your cable or satellite box to your TV “in” ports. The signal should follow a logical path. Ifrepparttar 133372 connections are correct but you’re still not seeing any picture, replacerepparttar 133373 cables to see if that solvesrepparttar 133374 problem. If you’re runningrepparttar 133375 signal through a DVR or VCR and having problems, skiprepparttar 133376 middle man and plugrepparttar 133377 cables straight fromrepparttar 133378 box torepparttar 133379 TV. If you get a picture you know you’re problem is inrepparttar 133380 VCR.

After making sure everything is on andrepparttar 133381 cable connections are all correct, try rebooting your system. Each company’s receivers have different methods of rebooting, but one fairly universal way is to unplugrepparttar 133382 box for 10 to 20 seconds and then plug it back in. Do not just turnrepparttar 133383 box off and back on again – you’ll need to actually pullrepparttar 133384 plug out ofrepparttar 133385 wall and then put it back in again. Oncerepparttar 133386 cable box is plugged back in, turnrepparttar 133387 power on and cross your fingers. If you’re still not receiving any picture, unplugrepparttar 133388 receiver again for up to one minute and then plug it back in. This may be tedious and time-consuming, especially when you’re missingrepparttar 133389 fight ofrepparttar 133390 year orrepparttar 133391 Super Bowl, but give itrepparttar 133392 full minute – you’ll spend less time doing it yourself than you will waiting for a repairman to come out and fix it.

Fuzzy Picture or Sound



Destruction for Good

Written by Thomas Yoon


Destruction! Blow Up! Eliminate! These are not pleasant words!

Unfortunately, when it comes to safety we have no other choices. Inrepparttar electrical industry, fuses are destroyed in order to protect lives or property.

Whenever there is a big fault inrepparttar 133360 power lines, possibly caused by short-circuiting, fuses are very helpful to stoprepparttar 133361 flow of current.

Unlike circuit breakers, fuses have no mechanical moving parts that can fail to operate. A fuse is just an electrical link in repparttar 133362 circuit that can melt very quickly whenever a certain temperature is reached.

Fuses have 4 things to do in a circuit:

1. They must sense faults 2. They must open quickly when a short-circuit occurs 3. They must also senserepparttar 133363 normal overloaded conditions, but must open ifrepparttar 133364 overload becomes excessive or prolonged. 4. They must not change or alterrepparttar 133365 characteristic ofrepparttar 133366 current during normal operation.

Early types of fuses use lead wires, selected based on their diameters, connected to terminals. These types have some disadvantages. Whenever a fuse blows,repparttar 133367 molten metal spatters overrepparttar 133368 equipment and could cause injury to people or cause fires, especially whenrepparttar 133369 arc was not confined.

Later, cartridge fuses replacedrepparttar 133370 old lead wire fuses. These consist of non-conducting cylinders which contain soft metal fuse strips. The strips are connected torepparttar 133371 ends ofrepparttar 133372 cylinders by metal caps or ferrules. The entire cartridge fuse is mounted onto a matching fuse block.

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