Intermittent Component Cable Problem

[petecal]

I am using a component cable to connect from my cable box to my TV.
Things have been working fine for years. Then for the last few weeks I will have a problem where the TV screen goes blank and it reports, "No Sync Signal". The audio is fine.
I discovered that if I remove and reinsert the green cable at the cable box the picture comes back.
This was happening every few days then got worse and sometimes multiple times a day.

I figured it was either the green component connector on the cable or the cable box. I was ready to take both back to the cable company and get new ones.

Then, being the inquisitive type, when it failed again, instead to doing my thing at the cable box end, I did it at the TV end. Same result. In fact it now fails only every few days and all I have to do is touch the cable at the TV end and the picture returns. By touch I mean literately "touch". I don't remove it or even pull on it, just barely nudge it.

Tonight when it failed I went back to the cable box end and nothing I did at that end would restore the picture, I totally removed and reinserted it three or four times with no success. So I went to the TV end and, again, just touched it and the picture returned.

Note, once the picture returns, it is a good solid connection. Wiggle, pull, whatever. The picture stays on.

I assume the TV is picking the sync signal off the green signal.

So what can be going on?

TIA
Pete

 

[americanaudiophile]

It could be a bad cable but if the cable provider supplied the cable too you might as well get a replacement box and cable at the same time.
When an RCA cable is left in place for long periods you can get some corrosion built up. There are contact cleaners for this but often just removing and reinserting the cable a few times helps. The RCA jacks can also be stressed by the weight of the cable over time and that can lead to a bad solder joint in the TV or cable box..