virgin modem flashing ready light (ntl 250)

[imadam]

i have searched on these forums for the answer but i can't find what i'm looking.

basically the modem has a ready flashing light and has done for almost a week resulting in no internet. friday i managed to get internet for approx 5 minutes then it went again, i left all cables out accept the power cable friday night, and saturday morning i plugged coax (the white one) back in and it worked straight away when connected to my laptop directly and also the router (netgear) we have. but then a couple hours later it goes again.

i tried yesterday many things to get it back again but nothing, so i again left coax out last night, and bam it's working again this morning for however long it'll last.

i have an engineer coming tomorrow, but if it goes again it's such a pain to have no internet when i'm trying to do some work, and he ay not fix the problem any way, so i'm trying to see if i can do anything in the mean time.

everything seems to light up as it should, e.g. power lights up, enet if it's plugged in, send recieve flash when it's doing something, and when it's working sync and ready are always light.

however when it doesn't work it first flashes the sycn light only very first with no ready on at all, then eventaully both are on permentelty for approx 15 seconds, then sync stays on and ready flashes for about 2 minutes, then it'll try again and it'll keep doing this until i intervene.

anything i can try to do to solve the issue?

edit: i just rememeber that i should say this isn't the first time we have had problems with virgin and the same problem. it seems almost every 6 months something like this happens and we are without interent for at least a few days, someone comes, and problem is temp fixed. last time the modem is same exact thing and they added a piece to the cable where it plugs into the mode, i can't see it's name atm and i'm afraid to touch the thing.


details:

Cable Modem Information
Cable Modem : DOCSIS 1.0/1.1/2.0 Compliant
MAC Address : (removed)
Serial Number : (removed)
Boot Code Version : 3.1.6d
Software Version : 2.94.1015
Hardware Version : 1.19

Item Status Comments
Acquire a Downstream Channel 402750000 Hz Locked
Connectivity State OK Operational
Boot State OK Operational


Downstream Lock : Locked
Downstream Channel Id : 6
Downstream Frequency : 402750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM256
Downstream Symbol Rate : 5360.537 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps32Increment4
Downstream Receive Power Level : 8.2 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 42.5 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 3
Upstream Frequency : 34000000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 55.0 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2


Modulation Type QPSK QPSK QPSK QPSK QPSK
Differential Encoding Off Off Off Off Off
Preamble Length 64 128 128 100 80
Preamble Value Offset 396 6 6 396 396
FEC Error Correction (T) 0 5 5 3 9
FEC Codeword Information Bytes (k) 16 34 34 78 232
Scrambler Seed 338 338 338 338 338
Maximum Burst Size 0 0 0 35 254
Guard Time Size 8 48 48 25 134
Last Codeword Length Fixed Fixed Fixed Short Short
Scrambler on/off On On On On On

Network Access : Allowed
Maximum Downstream Data Rate : 10240000
Maximum Upstream Data Rate : 512000
Maximum Upstream Channel Burst : 1600
Maximum Number of CPEs : 1
Modem Capability : Concatenation Enabled, Fragametation Enabled, PHS Disabled


just incase this is worth anything...
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) The s/w filename specified in the config file is the same as ...
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) A software upgrade filename was specified in the config file.
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) Authorized
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) Registration complete!
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) We registered with a DOCSIS 1.0 config file!
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) Received a REG-RSP message from the CMTS...
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) Sending a REG-REQ to the CMTS...
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) CableModem SNMP configure complete
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) IP init completed ok
Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Sun Dec 20 11:37:34 2009 Information (7) CableModem TFTP init ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) CableModem DHCP client init ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) DHCP WARNING - Non-critical field invalid in response.
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Beginning initial ranging...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) downstream time sync acquired...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Downstream sync ok
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) starting ds time sync acquisition...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) MAP w/initial maintenance region received
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Beginning initial ranging...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Information (7) Reset downstream scanning state!
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - ...
Time Not Established Time Not Established Critical (3) No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out

[Peter_]

The engineer should sort it tomorrow and may even swap out that old modem.

[imadam]

The engineer should sort it tomorrow and may even swap out that old modem.

yeah i bet he will, but the trouble i have is this is a recurring problem with virgin, and it makes sense this time to say wait 1 day, but next time i'll have to wait a week etc, so it'll be nice to have an idea of things i can od to try. it's working now, so this gives me hopes it's possible to get it to work more often if not always.

as well as the fact that someone will most probably come tomorrow, un-do something which one of the other engineers did saying it was bad to do that, then it wont make any difference. e.g. if the guy comes tomorrow morning, it might work like it is now, then he does little and says that's fixed it, but by afternoon it'll be bad again. this is so typical of what we have to deal with with virgin it's so annoying.

[Sephiroth]

Moldova's point is highly reasonable. You didn't ay where you're from so there's nothing to possibloy pin on an area problem.

Looking at your downstream power at 8.2 dBmv, say the old modem's drifted a bit (frequency lock). The cold weather may well have pushed the power up by 2 dBmv and with no margin left in your old modem, you can't lock easily.

So, if there's no area issue, a new modem is a godd call.