Strange cable TV problem

After cable guy no.6 came and got a fright when connecting the coax to the Cable box, following the large spark that came out.

we now are awaiting the crew chief, who should be coming tomorrow with all kinds of funky testing stuff. The current theory is that there is current coming off the cable drop, we shall see....

tried a few different wiring configurations, all to no avail. As soon as the coax connection comes into play it goes up the creek.

If this doesn`t work I`m contecting Dish or directtv.

So, cable guy 7 showed up today, seem to know his stuff. His theory was that the wiring in our (old) apt is messed up, he checked the plug that the surge protector was plugged into and sure enough its grounded incorrectly. He recommended buying a tested for each socket, which i did, found one that worked fine, plugged the stuff into that, attempted to connect the cable box.....and more sparks...

so now its cable guy no.8 on tuesday.

Next cable guy that comes, get him to trace the cable from your room to the input.
Disconnect the cable at the input to the house, there should be nothing going through it at this point, at least nothing from the cable company. Try to plug it into your TV again, if you still get sparks, then somewhere, there is either another join which is getting grounded or other, OR this piece of cable is getting a charge from somewhere in the walls. Which would mean someone has put a nail or something through it and possibly a power cable.

If you plug it into your TV, and this time no sparks fly, then you know the problem is coming from the cable company feed, which means the cable guy should be able to get a spark from the feed in to your house, or at least be able to measure voltage on the line into your home.

If there are surge protectors or other devices being used they must also be removed for testing, you want only the cable feed from the main in, nothing else.\
If you are using any type of surge that has a cable in and out, this should be tested too, they can cause more headaches than they are worth.

PAt
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IF you were to plug in a coax cable from a VCR to the TV (no local cable plugged into the VCR) do you get sparks?
You have to make sure it's not the TV that is causing the problems.

Did some testing for that, bought a receptacle analyzer to test our wall sockets, the one we had the TV plugged into did indeed show up as being wired incorrectly. So I tested other plugs and found that all the rest worked (is that murphys law in action? ) so anyway, plugged the stuff into the working plug...and some problems.

If I run a current detector on the coax coming into my apt it detects current, I know there should be a small amount of current, but should this also lead to current being detected on the HDMI cable? Given that the cable box is not actually plugged into the power..... still, next cable guy is coming tomorrow.

Good news is that my wife and I are getting a lot of reading done!

Since your cable is now cut, are you still getting sparks when you try to connect the cable box? WHOA!, don't try connecting the TV yet, I do not want to be responsible for any deaths read the entire post.

An outlet wired backwards should cause no problems with a TV. Polarized outlets were developed to make some electric devices safer, namely light sockets. Kids were getting electrocuted by touching light sockets, polarizing the outlet helps ensure the hot contact of the socket is the center contact and not the outer base.

Exactly how did the cable guy ascertain the power was coming from the TV, did he use a meter and verify that the TV is the power source causing the cable to spark? It seems you have three variables to your problem, the TV, the cable box, and the cable. I have no idea at what voltage cable comes into the house, but it is very low, my television?s manual says the signal power coming into the TV from cable averages 470mVrms. That is not enough voltage to cause sparks, and is more that likely physically undetectable to the average person. A good AC voltmeter should be able to read that amount of voltage though. If you are getting sparks you are dealing with a much higher voltage, so were is it coming from. As suggested in earlier posts, the cable may be compromised and is getting power from the house wiring, the cable box is defective and is outputting too much voltage to the component and HDMI outputs, or the TV is defective and is shorted to the inputs introducing voltage.

A series of simple tests should solve your problem. Check for voltage with a voltmeter at the cable, at the cable box output, and at the TV input. The blown fuse provides a clue because the power is being drawn through the circuit the fuse protects. I would not try to hook up any more TVs until you isolate where the stray voltage is coming from and fix the problem. If you do not know how to use a meter or are not comfortable using a meter do not do any of these tests yourself. Your problem is causing a current draw that is enough to blow a fuse, I?m assuming it is a home fuse probably 15 or 20 Amps @ 120VAC, which is more than enough power to cause serious injury or death. Get a good electrician to help you out, and to rewire the outlet that is wired backwards so that nobody gets shocked changing a light bulb.

Have you plugged the cable from the wall into a VCR, forget the TV for a moment. If all this is coming through the cable lines, one would think it would spark here too. The moment the cable makes a connection with anything, if it's the problem, it would spark. You may want to plug the VCR into a surge power bar, and plug that into the outlet you used for your TV.
If there are no sparks from the VCR, you could plug it into the TV Via the audio/video cables, avoid the coaxial connection on your TV. I am pretty sure somewhere in these posts it was mentioned that your DVD connection was fine, so the problem may very well be a bad connection at the coax port. Seeing 2 TV's like this is not a good sign.

You'll want to get an electrician to look at it.

I have an Lg 3d tv. I'm trying to connect comcast and sparks fly with component cables, hdmi, and even coax cable, I tried this recently I disconnected the main cable line that goes into the box and tried a direct connection to my lg tv and sparks flew. I tried connecting all the other cables from the Comcast box to the lg tv without connecting the Main line to the Comcast box and sparks did not fly. So it's not the box. But my dad said sometimes outlets can not be grounded right or wired reversed. So I'm try connecting to a different outlet to see if this is the problem. If not then the cable com pang will have to run a new line all the way to the poll.

I had my land lord check the the cable line coming inside the house with a volt meter we found a voltage of 110 coming in from the cable line. Now the technition from the cable company came in and saw this he disconnected something from where the Main cable conntects to. They check the cable line again with a radio shack ac volt meter. Now our state power provider company which is FPL is coming I'll everyone posted on the results.

ok FPL came which is the states electrical power provider they stated that there is nothing wrong on there ends. guys it looks like we all a electrical problem which can be fixed. if you look at the prongs on an old tv it only has two prongs that you can connect to an outlet which means the tv has no ground. now you guys are wondering what am i trying to say, our new tv's now a days our plasma's, flat screens, LED, LCD, have three prongs which means our new tv's have a ground which is that third circle whole in our regular outlets. as my land lord, FPL, and cable looked at the grounding out side of the building in which i am now living in its come to figure that the problem is with the grounding of the building's wiring. this is fixable what you guys are looking for is an open neutral wire that's right you need to a good electrician that can find out where in your house or building the neutral wire is loose or even broken at. my land lord has a great friend who is going to take care of this. i will let you guys know where it was found. this is why the new TV's fry because the electricity circuits through the TV because it is grounded. if your power light company state its a problem in your wiring than in most cases our homes are a little old remember most of the materials used in the past are not being used anymore. use a volt meter like i said this can be brought at radio shack and check the main line coming into the house. open neutral is most likely the problem.

Land is having the electrician come to find the wire that is causing this problem

Electrican came out there was to outlets in my appartment wired backwards. And one of the outlets had a bad polarity.

That kind of problem could cost someone their life. I use a three prong plugin unit and a simple multimeter could have located the fault but a certified electrician needs to be the one to open the outlet box.

My house was built in 2004.

I had the cable co install a new outlet. When the cable guy tried to connect the cable to my tv, it tripped the circuit. A tester revealed 'hot to neutral reversal'.

So, I tracked down the outlet from the panal that had the white lead as 'hot', taped it black, made the 'neutral' black lead white and hooked everything up.

ALL OUTLETS AND LIGHTS NOW TEST AS NORMAL.

So, now I try and again hookup the new coax cable; it sparks and kills the circuit. I put a volt tester on the coax and grounded it to the ground input on the AC and it shows 120 volts.

As I follow the coax back to the entry point into the house, there is no ground. In fact, nothing seems to be grounded except what I suspect is the amplifier; which is grounded at the case ground screw.