PIcking up the phone causes a retrain

oobleck - What was the cause of the static? Was it repaired or did it just go away?

Sounds like the POTS and U-verse are getting together in a bad way.

Crossed wire in the NID? Do you have pair bonding?

Are the POTS and U-verse on the same drop or different drops? If the same is it the balun that seperates the service? Maybe a second bad balun.

Any chance the POTS wiring and the U_verse wiring in your house are crossed? The wiring itself or an RG connection to a POTS wall jack?

One way to troubleshoot is to eliminate as much as possible - like all the house phone wiring - try it with just one connection.

Do you know all your wiring ? I have NID to RG COAX also feeding other TVs via diolexer and splitter. DVr is cat5 to RG. POTS has one connection to NID to connecting block terminating all wall jacks.

I could open up the one POTS wire to the NID & see if the problem still occurs - to eliminate a cross in the house wiring.

What about the possibility of a problem back at the VRAD/cross-connect box?

I have the same services as you.  Uverse, HSI, and POTS line.  The first and only time I had this issue with the RG dropping,  to include the static on the POTS, I called repair and a I&R tech showed up.  He found no static at the X-Box but when he got to the house he had static.  He ended up digging around where the buried cable came up out of the ground and found a shoddy splice (scotch locks and some tape)  someone did who knows how long ago.  I have been in my house 27 years and don't ever remember anyone splicing anything so it could have been there from day one. 

Anyway, he used an actual splice kit to terminate everything and static gone.  He also found the ONI/NID was not properly grounded.  There was a ground rod preset in the ground, clamp and all, but the ground wire from the ONI was just pushed into the dirt about a foot.  He just pulled on the ground wire and up it came.  He then properly grounded the ONI to the ground rod and I haven't had an issue since.  My sync rate went up on the RG and I now have almost no errors.  I'm about 1300 feet from the VRAD according to UVRT.

Not saying this is your solution but thought I would share what fixed mine.  This was maybe 2 years ago this happened.

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@aviewer wrote:

@oobleck - What was the cause of the static? Was it repaired or did it just go away?

 

There were several attempts by I&M to fix it, but neither the prem tech nor I know what they did.  I'm assuming they actually fixed it because it had been going on for months, so I'd be real surprised if it went away by itself. 

 

Sounds like the POTS and U-verse are getting together in a bad way.

 

Crossed wire in the NID? Do you have pair bonding?

 

No, just the regular U-verse connection.  The insides of the NID have been inspected and replaced multiple times.

 

Are the POTS and U-verse on the same drop or different drops? If the same is it the balun that seperates the service? Maybe a second bad balun.

 

They're on the same drop.  I suggested to the prem tech that the balun might be bad, since as far as I know that's what separates the data and POTS signals.  My guess is that the next thing he does will be to replace the balun again.

 

Any chance the POTS wiring and the U_verse wiring in your house are crossed? The wiring itself or an RG connection to a POTS wall jack?

 

If so I'd think the tech would have spotted it -- he seems pretty good.  As far as I know nothing has been changed inside the house in ages.  If a phone were plugged into the RG jack and vice-versa would it even work?

 

One way to troubleshoot is to eliminate as much as possible - like all the house phone wiring - try it with just one connection.

 

The static was definitely outside the house -- I connected a phone to the demarc and still had it.  Haven't tried that lately to see if it causes retrains, but since it doesn't most of the time I don't know how much that would tell me.  I'll give it a shot, though.

 

Do you know all your wiring ? I have NID to RG COAX also feeding other TVs via diolexer and splitter. DVr is cat5 to RG. POTS has one connection to NID to connecting block terminating all wall jacks.

 

My system is as simple as it gets -- all CAT5, with only one receiver.  The POTS goes straight from the NID to the old lightning arrestor in the basement, where it connects to the original phone wiring.

 

I could open up the one POTS wire to the NID & see if the problem still occurs - to eliminate a cross in the house wiring.

 

What about the possibility of a problem back at the VRAD/cross-connect box?

 

I think they've changed me to a different port.  I'll probably suggest they try a different pair from my drop to the VRAD, if there are any available, as well as another port.  Maybe somebody screwed something in the VRAD while connecting somebody else, since the phone/retrain thing just started.

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The last thing the prem tech did was replace the RG yesterday.  It worked perfectly for at least 14 hours -- long enough to get my hopes up -- but overnight the retrains started again, including another when I picked up the phone in the morning.  Two more since then, but none caused by the phone. 

Thanks for the good ideas.

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oobleck

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@BeeBeeSA wrote:

Anyway, he used an actual splice kit to terminate everything and static gone.  He also found the ONI/NID was not properly grounded.  There was a ground rod preset in the ground, clamp and all, but the ground wire from the ONI was just pushed into the dirt about a foot.  He just pulled on the ground wire and up it came.  He then properly grounded the ONI to the ground rod and I haven't had an issue since.  My sync rate went up on the RG and I now have almost no errors.  I'm about 1300 feet from the VRAD according to UVRT.

 

Not saying this is your solution but thought I would share what fixed mine.  This was maybe 2 years ago this happened.

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Thanks.  I&M has gone over all my connections several times, and I think they finally fixed the static; at least I don't hear it any more.  Unfortunately I don't know what they did to fix it -- maybe voodoo, for all I know.  All my wiring is above ground, and the static was audible at the demarc, so I know the problem wasn't in the house.  They put in a new ground when they first installed U-verse, and it seems to be in good shape as far as I can tell.

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oobleck

The one thing that comes to mind, based on what you are saying, have they replaced the splitter filter at the NID.  I can't give you the specific part number they should have used depending on what region you are in.  The biggest thing I can think of is that if you open your NID and the splitter filter is the size of two modules, then it probably needs to be swapped as some of them had issues with causing loss of signal when POTS goes off hook.  Just a thought based on what you said.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s positions, strategies or opinions.

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@unrtechie wrote:

The one thing that comes to mind, based on what you are saying, have they replaced the splitter filter at the NID.  I can't give you the specific part number they should have used depending on what region you are in.  The biggest thing I can think of is that if you open your NID and the splitter filter is the size of two modules, then it probably needs to be swapped as some of them had issues with causing loss of signal when POTS goes off hook.  Just a thought based on what you said.

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Thanks, I'll show this to the tech next time he comes out.  Is that the same as the balun?  That was replaced several weeks ago, quite a while before I noticed that POTS was causing dropouts.

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oobleck

Your splitter filter either at the SNI or in the huose may have failed.   The Balun attaches to the Data side ( yellow and black holes or screws ) of the splittler filter. The home run could also be bad.  Have the Tech check the COAX abilty to carry data with his JDSU and also check for corrision.  Corrision can present as a powder underneath the outer jacket of the COAX; the fitting may have to be removed to inspect.  If you had Comcast previously, sometimes the signal boosters they use get plugged back in; it looks like a transformer brick with coax coming out the bottom.  If you have a sgnal booster, ask the Tech to remove it.  

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@Peteconrad wrote:

Your splitter filter either at the SNI or in the huose may have failed.   The Balun attaches to the Data side ( yellow and black holes or screws ) of the splittler filter. The home run could also be bad.  Have the Tech check the COAX abilty to carry data with his JDSU and also check for corrision.  Corrision can present as a powder underneath the outer jacket of the COAX; the fitting may have to be removed to inspect.  If you had Comcast previously, sometimes the signal boosters they use get plugged back in; it looks like a transformer brick with coax coming out the bottom.  If you have a sgnal booster, ask the Tech to remove it.  

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Is the balun different from the splitter filter?  When the tech was here the other day I asked him, and he said they're the same thing.  The balun has been replaced several times -- that's usually the first thing they try.  There isn't any coax; it's all CAT5.

Two days ago the tech replaced the balun and everything else in the NID, it looked like.  He also replaced the 3800 gateway with a 3801, which he said is supposed to work better on longer loops -- mine is about 2600 feet, as I recall.  There were two retrains within the first 8 hours or so (one when I picked up a phone), then no more for almost two days.  I was thinking it was working much better, but just now I picked up a phone and it caused another retrain.  

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oobleck

oobleck _ do you have wireless turned on & a wireless phone?? Can you try the phone with the wireless turned off or a wired phone instead of the wireless?