Faulty Sky HD box
 

My HD box is getting increasingly temperamental and I need to cold reset it (power off at the mains for a minute, power on) to get it to work.

Now I'm getting poor images (as in poor reception / no signal) when watching various channels which again go when the box is cold reset.

It's way out of warranty, so I know I'll need to pay the call out/replacement charge but I've got loads of stuff saved on the HDD that I don't want to lose.

Apart from the box swap exercise - what options do I have?

try getting an upgraded power supply as they cure a lot of issues (if it is one of the affected boxes with pants PSU's)

Not heard of that one. I guess with it being out of warranty I can fit that myself... wanders off to test my Google-Fu....

which make is yours? (top of box at the back). As mentioned think the pace suffered with PSU issues.

regarding signal. probably not related here but always make sure the cable is firmly fixed at both ends. Mine came a bit loose and the signal strength dropped a hell of a lot!

My old one did the same - also sounded like it was constantly running (fan running)!!!

I had it changed and now my new one is playing up!!! OMG are they annoying!!!! :(

Will need to monitor this thread to see if there are any answers/solutions :)

Have you done a reset on the hardrive? or a reset on the sky+? these are two things I know helped a little... like a typical PC etc, a little data is stored and over time starts clogging up space... will find the info laters...

I think I'm on my fourth replacement box since November.

So far all complaints correspondence sent to Sky has been ignored, letters and emails.

Essentially they are using refurb boxes as replacements if your box dies. Now they say that all refurb boxes are completely new except for the case....either way if they are lieing or telling the truth I would have binned Sky for Virgin if I was allowed to instal it in my flat.

Customer service is awful, and I find it a complete stitch up to charge their customers £70 for an engineer to visit you once the box is out of warrenty. Bearing in mind I pay Sky near on £80 per month for the packages and broadband.

Only new customers are entitled to new HD boxes...

Let me know how you get on with your harddrive issues.

Do a planner rebuild you will not lose your recordings but you will lose your planned recordings. If that does not work do a full system reset from the settings menu 4-0-1-select, but you will lose everything cos it does a format.

dipster

I called when mine failed, hammed it up and the Indian blokey waived the engineer call out so I got a new box gratis :D Lost all my stuff on old one tho :( But it got to the point where it hardly worked at all so no choice.

How do you do a planner rebuild?

If it keeps saying lost signal then it's most likely the PSU capacitors.

The next fault (as it degrades) is that you'll get recordings showing as failed that are actually in the future.

If you're handy with a soldering iron you can buy the components as a kit from Satcure which is what I did and it worked a treat.

Handy with a soldering iron.... riiiiight... :) (well I did do the original XBox chip thingy successfully and boy that was fiddly)

However - thanks for the link :)

reckon that i am going to cancel my account and open a new one in my wifes name :) ;)

Are you changing your phone too? Sky aren't stupid as you may think.

Kieren people sell the psu's for the Thompson on eBay sometimes

I'll check the model details tonight and see what I can find - thanks for the idea :)

I recently lost my HD picture which became unlocked and fuzzy. The sound was still ok. I did a mains supply reset and it has sorted it out, but it was a bit of a worry.

Thanks for the Satcure link.

Les

Mine had exactly that issue of constantly losing the signal, nice to know what to do to fix it if they don't do it free next time lol!

It's actually pretty straightforward - if you own a soldering iron or have done some soldering then you can probably do it OK

Upgraded my Thomson's PSU (2006 model) off T'Internet. Replaced the PSU and sent the original one back for a £25 refund. Worked fine for a while , yet I am still getting issues with the box. Keep losing a signal (mostly signal 2, sometime signal 1) and in some cases when I press 'red' on the Sky news channel the box switches itself off and a hard reset is required. So now and agin have to check the signals so not to get a dreaded program 'Failed' to record. :mad: If I do find the signal gone then I end up doing a 'Planner Rebuild' or on the odd occassion done the forced upgrade of the software (Un-Plug, hold the 'backup' button on the box, plug back in and wait for all the lights to light up on the front of the box and let go off the backup button and wait 10 minutes). I beleive 1 fix for this problem is to put the box on a timed power switch and have it powered off in the early morning for a minute and let itself power back on. Apart from that unless someone else can recommend a better make of HD box?

this might be of some use mate

http://whatconsumer.co.uk/extended-warranties/