V+ box damaged my tv

[petero]

Hi all
Here's a tale but true
I have two virgin media V+ boxes, one down stairs (that's fine) exept for occasional freezing ect. the other is in my bed room. my wife's diassabled and watches a lot of tv, it's all she's got. Anyway, over a period of time the problems with her box has been getting worse, trouble with getting the box to come on, pixilation, vertical lines similar to what you would see on an old 405 line tv set and finally the sceen went half white and half black, no picture just audio.
Thinking that it was the tv, I borrowed my sons lg tv from his room to test the box out, but when my son tried to connect the scart lead from the V+ to the tv he got a shock from the lead, thinking it might just be static he tried to plug it in, at which point there was a blue flash and all the electric went off. this was so intense it partially melted one of the scart lead pins
when we got the virgin media engineer out he tried a new box, same thing only this time the box wasn't even pluged in. he said there was a major fault on my electrics, therfore not virgins fault.
I got electricians out they tested my electics out, all fine, one tried to plug the scart lead in, bang, flashes, does anyone know what could be going on here because I havn't got a clue

petero

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by petero

when we got the virgin media engineer out he tried a new box, same thing only this time the box wasn't even pluged in.

Sounds like a floating high voltage across the earth somewhere and it's ground out when you've plugged in the 2nd box..

Impossible to tell which box/tv had the problem as they could quite happily work independantly but when brought together in a certain config it goes bang

[Taf]

You need an electrician to come in and check your earthing I suspect.

[RobboEdin]

Originally Posted by petero

I got electricians out they tested my electics out, all fine, one tried to plug the scart lead in, bang, flashes, does anyone know what could be going on here because I havn't got a clue

petero

Originally Posted by Taf

You need an electrician to come in and check your earthing I suspect.

The electrician you employed should have been able to diagnose the source of this issue. Suggest you get him back and complete the work he should have done (and you presumeably paid for) in the first place.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Taf

You need an electrician to come in and check your earthing I suspect.

Yeah, it does sound like that... i'd get the electrician back.. he needs to find the fault you paid him/her to find, as RobboEdin say's above.

to the forum by the way

[petero]

Hi all
Thanks for the advice on the earthing, but because my wife is dissabled the council who gave us a grant for my wife's stairlift periodically come out and check on it, including the earthing facilities and so far have given a clean bill of health on that every time.
I know that these V+ boxes (although they have a metal case) are not earthed
they are suposidly double insulated.
The flash came from the scart and if I remember should only carry signal and low voltage 5-12v, and the discharge was way higher than 12v. I will phone virgin media again but as someone on the forum said they are unlikely to accept fault easily.
Thanks for your help
Petero

[ntl.wotcha]

Originally Posted by petero

when we got the virgin media engineer out he tried a new box, same thing only this time the box wasn't even pluged in.

petero

That's not possible. My guess is that your electrics are fine but the plug on one or both TVs is wired up backwards, i.e. live on neutral, that way when you are connecting the TV to the box you are actually connecting neutral to live = bang.

[tweedie]

They wont accept responsibility because it probably is not their fault. Simples.

You have some dodgy wiring somewhere along the way

[Peter_]

If it turns out to be your electrics and it has damaged the Vboxes you could end up being billed for the damage to them.