Virgin phone line no dialtone, diagnostic help

Brungle

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Hi guys,

I've currently got a virgin media phone line TV, broadband etc.
I have a fault with my phone line where by I have no dial tone its been like this for months now, originally started with a crackly line. Anyway I've been trying to resolve the fault myself as I'd like to avoid waiting in all day for an engineer (I struggle to get time off work). & I wanted to avoid a call out charge if it was my internal wiring to blaim.
I'd really appreciate some help off you guys please.

I've been testing with a very basic telephone which has no seperate power plug, I bought the phone brand new when we originally lost the dial tone as I suspected it was my other wireless phone that was at fault.





this is what I've tried so far:
  1. pop the front off the master socket, and plug the phone directly into the internal test socket.
  2. review the wiring within the master socket, only 2 wires actually connected, from what I've read this is normal. Points wired up were A (white with blue specs) & B (blue with white specs) as per pic.
  3. also tried wiring the above wires derectly to points 2 and 5 of the pull of part of the socket.
  4. I decided to have a look at the box outside where the cable meets my house. I notice there are 2 leads, 1 for the TV/Broadband COAX and one for the mult strand phone cable. I found that the original installer looks to have cut the phone cable too short and has extended it using scotchlock type devices :rolleyes: to extend the cable into the house (see pic). The external box wasn't exactly sealed so I assumed these connections were to blame so to do some testing I redid the connection using terminal blocks.
  5. terminal blocks didn't fix the issue so I did a continuity test on the internal socket using A and B to the corresponding output pin on the phone jack socket. This appeared to work ok no broken connection.
  6. I suspected my terminal blocks maybe hadn't worked so I removed them and held the 2 in use cores from the external (black) cable directly onto the phone plug on the correct pins. still no dial tone...
could it be that as the phone has no power plug I actually need to wire more than 2 cores from the cable on the outside feed for it to work correctly. or does it sound like there is a problem with the line from my house to the green cable/virgin box?


thanks for reading, any input greatly appreciated!:(
 

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Its either the pair in the sdp or mdp cabinet (one nearest the house) that have been dislodged or pulled out or same again in the Mux (the bigger green cabinet which could be a long way from the house) or it could be a broken drop cable from the secondary box (the sdp or mdp) to your house. Could be one or two other things but the things I have pointed out are the most likely. Either way you need an engineer.

The extending of the wires with scotchlocks is a run of the mill thing and is quite ok, but a decent engineer would fit a new cable in an ideal world.
 
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Can't really help but that's the same cheap and crappy phone I have here hooked up to my VoIP line.

It's all way over my head but I hope you get it sorted out :)
 
thanks for the input gents, I'll put it back together and I'll have to get them out to sort it. Never touched telephone wiring before now but at least I've learnt something new..
 
virgin came out this morning, and after about an hour of tinkering managed to sort it. He found that the cable from the street to my house was dodgy and had too much noise on it to send enough voltage down for the phone. He relaid a new phone cable.

interestingly the cheapo phone still doesn't work but my wireless one does. The wireless one is using more pins on the socket than the cheap one and it also has a separate power lead..
 
I had the same problem a few months ago and tested everything right back to the incoming box on the outside wall and still no dialling tone so out with the engineer who found that the main cable from their cabinet to my house was damaged. So a week later a team turned up to lay the new cable. Then another 2 weeks later a guy came to connect it. A ten minute job. Arrrggg so frustrating but at least I got money off next bill so chase them if it goes on too long and complain to get a refund on your lost service.
 
Need some help. Have a Virgin package that includes phone. The phone terminal is a white adapter out the back of the router. I need the landline to be removed ate so purchased a extension lead but don't get any dial tone. Plugging the phone directing into the adapter in the router and it works. Its the extension that seem to be the problem but its brand new? Any ideas
 
If you are using an RJ11 - 4 wire extension or replacement cable, this is likely to be the issue as there's at least 3 different wiring conventions for them.

If it's a standard BT plug and socket type extension it should work without issue but I have known them to make poor contact on occasions and sometime a wiggle or just pulling out the plug slightly out of the socket will cure things.
 

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