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Cable box is making a ticking noise

Have a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3200 cable box that yesterday started making a ticking noise when it's on. The ticking noise is coming from the box itself, not the TV speakers. If I remove the coaxial cable that's coming from outside the noise goes away, screw the cable back in the noise comes back. No problem with the TV picture or sound. I presume it's a component inside the box that's dying, and when it does picture and sound will die as well. Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

And no, I don't think the box is about to explode. At least I hope it's not. :)

Reply to
mike
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Well, its either very bad news (boom!) or more likely the sign of a failing capacitor on your switching supply.

If you have a capacitor checker I'd pull it out and check all the caps before it fails.

The Blue ESR cap kit is a good start...

John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

With over-the-air antennas and coax feeds, one can experience the effect of high static buildup arcing from the center conductor to a nearby ground -- probably right at the back of the coax connector on the chassis. tick - tick - tick - tick - tick ....

I would not expect that to happen with a cable lash-up. But, when 'things' are not working as expected, they are - well, ummmm - not working as expected.

Jonesy

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Reply to
Allodoxaphobia

Could be static bleeding off from the center conductor of the connector. They do build in protection for this. Other than that it's anyone's guess. If you rent the box from a cable company ask them for a replacement. If a replacement still makes noise, the cable company needs to know about the problem.

--
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Reply to
Meat Plow

Is there a small relay inside ?

Reply to
N_Cook

I don't have a capacitor checker.

Reply to
Mike

I own the box. Have another box I'll try after work today, but will need to call the cable company to activate it.

Reply to
Mike

I opened the box yesterday, turned it on, couldn't see any kind of arcing. Was hard to tell where the noise exactly was coming from, but there's a large thin aluminum box that the coax cable plugs into, the noise could have been coming from there. Of course, could have been arcing inside of that box.

Reply to
Mike

I opened the box yesterday, didn't see anything that looked like a relay.

Reply to
Mike

I would think that being active wouldn't make a difference but swapping the set top box with another of the same make/model is the definitive step in troubleshooting.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

Generally the ticking noise is a self destructing swithing powersupply. Some sort of internal fault detection (or a fault itself) is causing it to shut off, and then after it resets, it trys again.

This causes the oscillator to start up again, and makes the core of the transformer "click".

Checking capacitors is a good idea, they are often at fault.

Occasionaly, they have enough juice stored in the filter caps that it stays on without being noticed as a failure.

We had a combination satellite box and pvr that did it for the last 3 years. It still worked fine until it reached over 100F here (first time in the

14 years I've been here), when it crashed.

Since our cable bill included insurance on the unit, they came out and replaced it with a new one. It runs much cooler and does not click.

Geoff.

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Reply to
Geoffrey S. Mendelson

It's a different model.

Reply to
Mike

sort

:-)

So it could die tomorrow or work for years? I'd just leave it alone until it did die, but I can hear the noise while watching TV and it's quite annoying.

Reply to
Mike

Then swapping it out will not mean much.

--
Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Pretty Corpse
Reply to
Meat Plow

sort

:-)

did

Has the cable company been in your area lately? Are you using a legal box? are you sure your friendly cable company didn't install a charge pump device on your line to burn out your illegal box ?

Inquiring/creative Minds would like to know..

Reply to
Jamie

sort

replaced

:-)

did

Yes, it's a legal box. I bought it used on ebay from a guy who had moved to a different city and he'd switched to a different cable company. When he left, he had the cable company de-activate the box and when I connected it to the TV I had to call the cable company to activate it before it would work. I think the cable company would know if the box was legal or not...

Is your mind satisfied now?

Reply to
mike

I always hate it when someone posts a message asking for help, gets replies and then doesn't bother to post what happened. Well, that someone isn't me... I gave up on that Explorer 3200 cable box. So I've re-connected the box I'd been using before I bought the 3200 (it's an Explorer 940 - no display or buttons on the front, and cheaply made - the box itself is plastic - it's a piece of crap, but it works and doesn't tick...). Thanks to everyone for trying to help.

Reply to
mike

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