7 Oct
2005
7 Oct
'05
11:59 a.m.
We've got a cable decoder box here that trips out
the house breakers
when plugged into certain outlets - irrespective of whether it's via
a surge protector (probably not surprising there) or of what other
loads might be sharing the same wiring to that outlet.
Two-prong plug or three? If two, polarized (blades different widths)
or not (identical blades)? Does it trip the breaker when it's plugged
in or when it's turned on (or does it not have a power switch)? Does
the breaker trip instantly, after a few seconds, after a minute or so,
or what? Does it do this even if it's not connected to anything else
(ie, with the cable, feed to the TV/VCR, etc disconnected)? If you can
reverse the plug (ie, if it's a non-polarized two-pin plug), does it
still trip if you do so?
I'm suspecting a power fault (a connection between a mains rail and
something else), with either (a) a non-polarized plug and tripping
depending on which way it happens to be plugged in rather than which
outlet or (b) a polarized or three-prong plug with the leak between
neutral and ground (ground via something like the cable sheath
conductor, or, of a three-pin plug, possibly via the ground pin) and
some outlets wired with neutral and hot swapped.
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