Please help - wiring issue

[Chris]

Ok long story short: The person who used this room I am currently in talked on the phone too much, so her father cut the phone line outside. I am trying to re-wire it together with no luck thus far.

Here is an image of how it looks at the moment.

http://www.chrislarsen.org/wires/Picture.jpg

The line on the right is coming from another room whos phone line IS working. The bottom line is coming from my room, which is not working. They are wired exactly the same, so I do not understand why my room doesn't work and the other one does.

The right line has 6 total wires coming from it: 1 orange, 1 blue, 1 green, 1 white with orange, 1 white with blue, and 1 white with green. The green line and it's corresponding line (white with green) are not attached to anything.

The bottom line has 4 total wires coming from it: 1 orange, 1 blue, 1 white with orange, and 1 white with blue.

I don't see what I did wrong (if anything). Any help you could provide would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

[mdshunk]

That's a shameful mess, but it appears to be hooked up properly (make sure the connections inside the wire nuts are actuallly connected). I think you'll have to check the jack end in your room. The BLUE should terminate on the RED terminal. The WHITE/BLUE STRIPE should terminate on the GREEN terminal. The ORANGE should terminate on the YELLOW terminal. The WHITE/ORANGE STRIPE should terminate on the BLACK terminal. If it's this way at both ends, then you'll have to trace out the wire to your room and check for more cuts.

NOTE: If you only have one phone line (ie. one phone number) in the house, the RED/GREEN (aka BLUE/WHT-BLUE) pair is the only pair you need connect. The YELLOW/BLACK (aka ORANGE/WHT-ORANGE) is for line 2, if you have a second line at your house. The GREEN pair in your picture on the right hand cable would be for line 3, if you had 3 lines.

[Chris]

Thank you for such a prompt reply. I have followed the line and found no further problems.

We only have 1 phone line but I plan on adding a second phone line to my room. I really have no clue why I get no dial tone at all. The whole situation just confuses me. Any other suggestions you could provide would be welcomed.

Thanks.

[Chris]

Additional comment: I will check out the jack in my room to see if anything is out of place.

[mdshunk]

HOLY COW! I did a little hacking on the website that you had your pictire link to, and found some other pictures of this wiring mess. The cable going to your room has a staple RIGHT THROUGH THE CABLE in several of the pictures. Apparently, you removed the staple for the picture that you posted on this site. I'd almost bet it cut off one of the conductors. Skin out the jacket of the cable to your room in the area of where you removed that staple and check for a broken wire.

[Chris]

*Update*

Just checked out the jack:

The orange line is terminating at blue.
The blue line is terminating at yellow.
The white with blue is terminating at black.
The white with orange is terminating at green.

I guess this is the problem? I will configure it to your specifications and let you know how it goes.

[Unregistered]

HOLY COW! I did a little hacking on the website that you had your pictire link to, and found some other pictures of this wiring mess. The cable going to your room has a staple RIGHT THROUGH THE CABLE in several of the pictures. Apparently, you removed the staple for the picture that you posted on this site. I'd almost bet it cut off one of the conductors. Skin out the jacket of the cable to your room in the area of where you removed that staple and check for a broken wire.

YES!!! I saw that too and couldn't believe it. Those other pictures that you saw are a little older. The one I posted here is an updated version.

[Chris]

*Update*

I skinned down the cable a little and nothing seems to be damaged where the staple was. However, the "coating" on 2 of the wires was chipped off a SMALL amount, exposing the copper wire just a little. Very minimal exposure though.

[mdshunk]

Good..., now redo the jack end the right way and you should be good to go.

[Chris]

Well, the jack on my end is configured to your specifications but I still have no dial tone. I guess I will have to check the other end?

[mdshunk]

Someone may have used a goofy, non-standard color code system for this install. RED and GREEN (or BLUE and WHT/BLU) are supposed to be line 1. YELLOW and BLACK (or ORANGE and WHT/ORANGE) are supposed to be line 2. If all else fails, take apart the jack that is working and make your jack like that one.

[Chris]

Yeah I was just about to try that.

Here is an image of my jack if it helps at all

http://www.chrislarsen.org/wires/myjack.jpg

[mdshunk]

Might just be the camera flash making the colors funny, but to confirm.... is the wire on the GREEN terminal of the jack WHITE with a BLUE STRIPE?

[Chris]

Yeah, it's white with a blue stripe. It just looks yellow for some reason (possibly age and/or the flash).

Anyways, I configured my jack exactly like the working one and still no dial tone!!!! What is going on!!!

arg...

[Chris]

Just realized something....

Since the blue wire is going to the green terminal, and the white with blue is going to the red terminal (on our setup), shouldn't the wiring outside (I am referring to this http://www.chrislarsen.org/wires/Picture.jpg ) correspond? On that image, it shows the blue wire connecting to the red wire, and the white with blue wire going to the green wire. Is this backwards or am I wrong?

I really appreciate your help mdshunk. Making this a lot easier for me!

[mdshunk]

Calm down, you're getting mixed up. I never wrote blue to green. Reread some of the past posts.

For a proper installation you should have:

BLUE to RED
WHT/BLU to GREEN
ORANGE to YELLOW
WHT/ORG to BLACK


Again, I'm beginning to suspect that this installation used some goofy color combination. Take a pic of the jack that is working and post that. I'll try to help you summore ... (or someone else can chime in any time, here).

[Chris]

My fault, I failed to specify the "working" color combination.

After looking at the working jack in the other room, the setup is as follows:

The blue wire is terminating at the green terminal.
The white/blue stripe is terminating at the red terminal.

The orange and orange/white wires aren't attached at all.

That is how mine is now configured.

Sorry about the confusion.

[mdshunk]

The polarity of the BLUE and WHT/BLU doesn't really matter, as long as they terminate on the RED and GREEN terminals. If this is so and you still don't have dial tone, then you either have 1) a bad wire to your room 2) a bad jack or 3) a bad phone in your room that you're testing with. Simple as that.

One thing you could try (I hope this doesn't confuse you). To check to see if there might just be trouble with the BLUE or WHT/BLU conductors to your room... try swapping the BLUE and WHT/BLU wires and the ORANGE and WHT/ORANGE wires to your room and BOTH the spice end and the jack end. This will then be using the orange pair as if they were the blue pair. Understand? Are you testing with a known good phone? Look "in" the jack and visually inspect the pins for bent/broken/crossed pine.

[Chris]

I follow what you want me to try, somewhat.

There is nothing wrong with the phone (it is the phone I borrowed from the "working" phone line in the other room).

It looks like your suggestion may be tomorrow's experiment. It just seems highly unlikely that the problem is due to faulty wires. Keep in mind that this phone line has been operational before. Therefore it seems that with the correct re-wiring from where the line was cut at, I should get a dial tone.

Of course I am on no grounds to say such things, due to my inexperience with phone technicalities.

[Chris]

Here is a pic of the working jack:

http://www.chrislarsen.org/wires/workingjack.jpg

[Chris]

*Update*

The phoneline is working. Apparently, the blue and white/blue wires are not functional. I tried your suggestion and switched them with orange and white/orange, which proved successful. T

hanks for your help msdhunk.

[mdshunk]

A bad pair isn't all that uncommon. Pleased I could help someone... It makes my fat head even bigger.