[bluenote]

Hey guys

I'm at my wit's end so posting here is a huge hail mary that someone can help me out.

My HTPC (and nothing else in the house) loses it's HDMI connection briefly for a couple seconds when certain things happen in the house.
The doorbell, the stove fan turning off/on, opening the stove (lightbulb comes on/off), the A/C turning on, plugging in a phone charger (sometimes!).

I've had this problem before, and managed to mitigate it by changing where things plugged in. This time around, this has not worked.
I took a long extension cord and played silly buggers doing all sorts of combinations with power sourced throughought the house.
No luck. The only thing that fixed it was to actually plug in the HTPC to the neighbours power.

I should say that the TV and other sources are fine - the AVR + cable box or plain TV do not suffer from this problem.

I don't know why it's gotten worse but today I bought a UPS and that didn't even work. I also tried a fairly expensive Belkin power bar.

Other PC's in the house are fine too. Even other HTPC's.

Thanks for any suggestions!

[joelbaby]

I bought a UPS and that didn't even work. I also tried a fairly expensive Belkin power bar.

You'd need a line interactive UPS - not a basic unit. Don't buy Belkin - all they sell is overpriced crap in a fancy box.

Sounds like your house is wired badly. Speak to an electrician.

[bluenote]

In the end what finally solved this was changing the path of the hdmi cable from pc to AVR. Too near other power cables caused the behavior to happen. I figured this out while trying a heavier insulated cable in a temporary configuration with the hdmi cable running across the floor rather than behind the tv with everything else.

[aesalazar]

Wow. Was the first HDMI cheap cables? Even with a minimal amount of shielding you should have problems like that. Maybe a ground problem with that device? Or damaged cables?

Glad you figure it out.

Ernie