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[YF12A]

Got a house full of X10 things. I use 3 of the 16-button control boxes. Some of the lights still work from all of them but lamps connected to the same power strips as the control boxes usually don't work now. Sometimes one of the lamps does work but the other never does now. They are on opposite ends of the sofa. Both boxes still operate lights on the other side of the room but now none of the outside lights work at all. Disconnected the new cellphone chargers but that didn't help. No other recent changes in devices or appliances. Seems that many of the lights worked and then didn't, worked again but within a few minutes, nothing. Tried the XTBR on the breaker panel and it showed good X10 signal reception by way of the LED but the lights still don't work. Should I start mapping all of the outlets and wall switches?

[Brian H]

You may want to try something simple first. Try rotating both the House and Unit Code dials on the modules a few turns. Some times with age the, switches make poor contact and the module is on a different X10 address. Rotating them cleans the switch contacts and the address maybe more stable.

Do the plug strips have surge suppression or power line conditioning? If so they could be effecting the X10 power line signals.
If you also have a TV or computing equipment on them. That also can effect X10 power line signals.

Do you have any X10 power line coupling between the two incoming power line to the home? With out coupling the XTBR signal may still have problems getting from the incoming line it is connected to to the other line feeding part of the home.
Could be the XTBR is on the same line feeding the power strips.
 
The sometimes working and then not working. Could be an signal sucker or power line noise maker. That is not always running.
Since you did try an XTBR you may have seen Jeff's great troubleshooting tutorials but if not.
http://jvde.us/x10_troubleshooting.htm

Mapping all devices and circuits is always a help in troubleshooting.

[bkenobi]

I find having a mapped electric system very beneficial just so I know next time something related comes up (has happened several times actually).  It does take a long time to do this depending on the complexity of your system, number of outlets/appliances/light fixtures, and whether you have help or not.  If you don't have any kind of line tracing tool it can take even longer (a radio can do the same thing though).

That said, you can probably get your answer without mapping everything.  If you turn all breakers off and then turn on only the critical ones (lamp and controller outlets), you can confirm everything works as expected.  If not, there's something on the line that is an issue most likely.  Unplug everything on that line until it works.  Whatever was removed is a problem.  Turn breakers back on one at a time to confirm functionality.  You can isolate the issues using this approach and then you'll at least know what needs a solution.  Without this approach, you will blindly guess at what to do.