Telephone wiring fault finding

[leee]

went upto to the inlaws to see if i could help them regarding their phone and internet problems as they were lost and bt were quoting £190 call out and high hourly rate if it was not bts fault.

The phone quality was poor (faint and echo) i tried this on all the sockets inc the master and the modem kept disconnecting also. They have the newer NTE5 type master socket so i took the lower part off and plugged a good know working phone into the test socket and it was perfect so obviously not a bt problem and so my problem.

On the rear of the lower NTE5 part is 2 x 4 core cables (all cores in good condition ans are connected to terminals 2,3,4,5 (2 to each of the terminals)....... 1 cable runs off to a slave socket (modem connects to this one) and thats it. The other cable goes outside and upstairs to a bedroom slave socket then onto another slave and then a 3rd (the telephone is usually plugged in this last one) thats all they have plugged in, 1 cordless telephone upstairs and the computer modem downstairs.

it has always been wired this way and has worked for years, they have not opened any sockets up and to my knowledge not damaged any wiring either.

Where would i start in trying to locate the fault ?

anyone seen this fault before and could offer any suggestions ?

Thanks Leee

 

[breezer]

sound like a cable is crushed

dissconnect any one cable (cable not cores) and see wha happens, if same diss the one that is left and put the other one back

 

[leee]

cheers breezer - sounds like a good start

I was surprised to see 2 cables though connected to the master as i thought you only wired the slaves in series but this has 2 cables off the master going in opposite directions - so in effect 2 seperate slave circuits ?

a telephone connected to slave circuit 1
a modem connected to slave circuit 2

faulty is on both circuits though ?

 

[breezer]

as i said completely dissconect one whole cable (all cores) the fault is unlikey to be on both cables unless they both meet before tyhe master socket

 

[Lectrician]

Nothing wrong with two cables originating from the master. The IDC terminals can take a maximum of three according to the spec, although BT guys are told to never punch down more than two (they use jellies in the back box if they need more).

As said, you can disconnect one of the cables completely from the master to kill one of the secondary points. You can then figure out which is causing the problem.

What colours are connected at each socket?

 

[leee]

not 100% sure now as they live 30 miles away, i got them up and running via the master test socket and an extension lead for now but from what ive read and from what i remember it looked ok at that point.

blue/white and whi/blue wires to 2 and 5 - not sure which way round
orange/whi to 3 i think from memory

i'm thinking either a crushed or broken wire somewhere like breezer pointed out, or could water get into the cable thats been run outside ?

not sure what the common causes are for a faint sounding/echoing phone.

also calls ring in ok, but its a struggle to dial out sometimes

cheers leee

 

[Infidel]

If it is a wiring fault it may be damp getting into the back of one of one the boxes/sockets take them off and look for corrosion a sort of blue green wet or crystally deposit , or believe it or not spiders actually can get in the back of the boxes and lay eggs and short out the wiring 75v ac ringing current tends to fry them.
If you have a multimeter test for a low Ir between the pairs unplug the dsl modem and phone and test each cable individually by removing from the NTE set the meter to 2k ohms strip back a bit of insulation clip it on and see if you get any values on w/b b/w then leave one leg of the meter on the w/b and check all other conductors of that cable any reading is probably sus indicating either a socket faultor cable fault.
Dont hold the clips on and test either hold the insulated part or hands off it wont hurt you but all you do is start measuring your bodies resistance and could lead yourself up the garden path.
You have checked filters for the dsl are in line?