Loose Comm ports

[debtoews]

we had this issue- a toothpick inserted worked until the season was over and I sent the board to LOR for repair  :-)

[OneHotRT59]

I had the same issue with two of my six controllers last year.  Controllers would not pass all signals to next controller.  Bench tested all to determine which rj45 jack was the culprit.  In one case it was not the jack that looked loose.  I also determined for mine was not any issue with soldering.  It was the type of RJ45 jack LOR uses.  With the help of a network tester, i found that i lost signal from one board to the next.  If you look into the jack just below the 8 connector wires, you will notice that there are slots the 8 wires ride in just above the PCB board. I noticed the wires we not all extended out evenly. Some seemed to be stuck on the PCB board which actually caused the jack to lift off the board.  After fiddling with the jack a bit, i was able to get the connections "Talk". Carefully using a paper clip, i was able to slightly pull the wires up and away from the PCB. After they all looked even in the jack, i reconnected the network cables and tested.  Success!  I ended up purchasing new jacks with solid backs instead of open slotted.  Removed and Replaced both jacks even though only one was the real culprit. All up and running.  There is another workaround to be able to extend to your next controller if you do not use the bad one last in your network. As long as one jack is usually good and since these jacks are all wired in parallel for pass through, you can use an RJ45 Type 7 wire splitter.  "InstallerParts 10/100 BaseT 1P/2J Type 7 Wiring Splitter, Pigtail Type". This type splitter is wired in parallel, and passes the signals just like the two already soldered on the board.  When testing this type spllitter with a network tester, all lines "1-1, ... "8-8", should fire just like when testing cable.   "DO NOT USE A TYPE 8" splitter.  Type 8 splitters are used to share unused network lines on a single network cable with two different devices without running two cables, and are usually sold in pairs.  Type 7 is parallel.  Hope this helps.  There are many of us out here that have the same problem and i can say it is frustrating when ready to fire up the show.  I found the same hints in many of the forums i searched