How to Troubleshoot Cable TV & Internet Problems
Cable television and Internet are sources of entertainment for many people. Once you have acquired service from your cable provider and installed your cable box and cable modem, then you can begin to surf the Internet and watch television. Unfortunately, cable television and cable Internet are not functional 100 percent of the time. In many cases, service may be down because of a problem with the cable company or could be a result of bad weather. However, there are some items you can check before calling your cable company's customer service.
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Instructions
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Verify that the cable bill is not past due. Many times service can be unavailable because the cable account is delinquent.
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Unplug the power cord from the back of your cable modem.
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Unscrew the coaxial cable from the back of your modem, then unscrew the other end from your wall cable jack.
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Screw both ends back into their previous locations, then reinsert the power cord into the cable modem. Attempt to connect to the Internet by connecting an Ethernet cable to the back of the cable modem, then connect the other end to the Ethernet port on your computer. Open your Web browser and see if you can access a website. If you are unable to access any sites from this computer, then you need to contact your cable provider's technical support, as it is a problem on the company's end.
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Turn off your television and cable box.
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Unscrew the coaxial cable on the back of the cable box and the other end connected to the wall cable jack, then unplug the cable connecting the cable box to the television. Depending on the type of cable box and television that you have, this could be a coaxial cable, HDMI cable or RCA cable.
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Unplug the cable from the back of the television connecting the television to the cable box.
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Reconnect the cable from the television to the cable box, then reconnect the cable from the wall to the cable box. Make sure that the cable going to the television in connected to an "Out" or "Output" jack and that the cable coming from the wall is connected to the "Cable In" jack.
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Turn on the television and the cable box, then wait for the cable box to initialize. Once the initialization has completed, attempt to switch channels. If there is no signal, then you will need to contact your cable company to see if there is an outage in your area or if the company is experiencing problems.
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Find the entering cable wire inside your house. If you have a basement, it is typically somewhere down there. If you don't have a basement, then the connection may be outside. If you live in an apartment, you may not have access to this connection and will require assistance from your property's maintenance crew.
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Check each connection on the entering wire splitter to ensure that the connections are secure. If the connections here are correct and the connections to your electronics are correct, then there may be a problem with your incoming cable signal. Contact your cable company's technical support.
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Tips & Warnings
If all of your internal connections are secure and the cable company indicates that your service is active, then you may have a bad coaxial cable somewhere inside your residence. Replace each coaxial cable until service is restored.
Installing a cable splitter to share a cable connection between multiple televisions can drastically decrease your signal strength. If you are able to access the Internet and view cable television on one TV and not another, then the split may be the problem. Contact your cable provider to install a second cable jack and avoid using the cable splitter.
