Joanne Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 My Sky + HD box is a total nightmare. It is freezing pretty much every day, sometimes it decides not to record our series links, sometimes it will blork out on the picture, so it's all blocky, sometimes it will just display a pink screen and it is generally very slow. I've done ALL the troubleshooting rubbish and I think we just need to buy a new one. Thing is... Sky want £210 for a new box!!! Yikes. Has anyone got one lying around that they don't want anymore? Failing that... I think I will have to visit ebay!
Nibiru Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Ring Sky & threaten to cancel unless they sort your problems out. Be firm and you should get a replacement box at a sensible price. And check its not overheating - esp if the cat sits on it or its in a cabinet with poor air flow.
elsiegee40 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 My Sky + HD box is a total nightmare. It is freezing pretty much every day, sometimes it decides not to record our series links, sometimes it will blork out on the picture, so it's all blocky, sometimes it will just display a pink screen and it is generally very slow. I've done ALL the troubleshooting rubbish and I think we just need to buy a new one. Thing is... Sky want £210 for a new box!!! Yikes. Has anyone got one lying around that they don't want anymore? Failing that... I think I will have to visit ebay! According to Sky: http://m.shop.sky.com/mt/www.sky.com/shop/tv/sky-plus-hd-box/ You should be able to get a box from them for "up to" £199 Sky+HD box:Existing Sky+ box households are not eligible for a discounted box unless taking the Family Bundle. Existing customers must agree to new 12 month minimum term for Sky TV. One free/discounted box per household. Sky+HD box up to £199 if you are not eligible for discounted price (Sky TV subscription required). A Sky+HD box has all the features of Sky+ and can store an average of 60 hours of HD or 185 hours of standard definition programmes. To view free-to-air HD content you need an HD ready TV. To view Sky HD content you will also need the Family Bundle and,for Sky Sports/Sky Movies in HD, the HD Pack (£5.25 a month on top of your sports/movies subscription). Sky+HD 2TB box:Existing Sky TV customers who have never had a Sky+HD box taking the Family Bundle and existing Sky TV customers with the Family Bundle or other Sky HD subscription adding their first Sky Multiscreen (£11.25pm per box) are entitled to one Sky+HD 2TB box for £49. Existing Sky TV customers with the Family Bundle or other Sky HD subscription and new customers joining Sky TV with the Family Bundle are entitled to one Sky+HD 2TB box for £149. One discounted 1TB or 2TB box per household. Additional Sky+HD 2TB boxes £249 per box. Customers taking Sky TV without the Family Bundle and customers purchasing a standalone 2TB box without Sky TV can get a Sky+HD 2TB box for £249. Standard set-up £30 for new customers and £60 for existing Sky TV customers. Non-standard set-up may cost extra. Sky+HD 2TB box provides 1.5TB of personal storage and 0.5TB of storage for On Demand Showcase content We are in the same boat. Our, admittedly pretty old, HD box is constantly freezing and I am shopping arojnd before replacing it.
strawberry Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 I phoned up and they told me it was £60 for an engineer visit or I could buy 6 months insurance for £60. Careful phoneing them though, that can cost a fortune!
ZeroHour Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Just to say: Game of Moans: Sky coughs to BORKED set top box BALLS-UP • The Register It usually takes a month or so for sky to roll the updates out to all the boxes though. 2
elsiegee40 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 (edited) Just to say: Game of Moans: Sky coughs to BORKED set top box BALLS-UP • The Register It usually takes a month or so for sky to roll the updates out to all the boxes though. I hadn't seen that... and the timescale is about right. It's a complete PITA. EDIT From Sky's website If you have a Sky+HD box in your home, we know you may have had some problems recently and we’re sorry that you may have experienced any of the following: - Your TV Guide listings have been slow to update. - Series Links have stopped working causing problems recording future episodes of your favourite shows. - If you own a Pace or Samsung Sky+HD box it may have become unresponsive. Latest news:The latest news we have is that we've been testing a fix and we've seen some positive results. We're going to trial the fix on a large number of boxes later this week. We'll give you our next update early next week. Last updated: 24 February 2015, 15:30 Edited February 25, 2015 by elsiegee40
LosOjos Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Before you replace it, try letting it rebuild it's DB - over time, that can become corrupt and cause funky problems. To do so, go to services menu, on the remote press 0, 0, 1, Select, then choose Rebuild on the menu that shows. In that same menu, there's a system reset option which might help as a last resort (it will wipe your HDD!)
Tesla Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Other halfs parents' box has been playing up too, saying searching for listings for all the channels and being slow, i rebooted it and it fixed it but the next time i went over it was doing it again, hopefully they'll sort it soon then!
elsiegee40 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Before you replace it, try letting it rebuild it's DB - over time, that can become corrupt and cause funky problems. To do so, go to services menu, on the remote press 0, 0, 1, Select, then choose Rebuild on the menu that shows. In that same menu, there's a system reset option which might help as a last resort (it will wipe your HDD!) I've been through that planner rebuild loop more than once. I will hang out for the Sky fix and see if things improve.
john Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Other option is its HDD going so you can swap it for a new one About ExPVR - The Sky+ & Sky+ HD Recording Copier - pH-Mb this software is great, runs on your PC and sorts it all out, I did a white Sky+ to new Sky+ HD box for my parents no lost data or anything they were chuffed and I'll be doing mine to a decent sized disk rather than the tiny one in my HD box. The forum also has recommended disks to use in your box. 1
JJonas Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Other Sky hard drive migration software is available, this one is free Copy+, the free Sky & XTV disk copier software 1
Joanne Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 Thanks for all your replies guys... to elaborate a little: I currently pay £5.50 a month for the Family bundle with HD... I don't really want a new contract for £20+ a month because it will probably be more expensive (I think). My PS4 lives on top of the sky box, but it is never hot to the touch when pulling the plug on it. The box has been playing up for YEARS... but has been worse recently. Think it was about 18 month ago it decided to wipe all of our recordings for no reason.
strawberry Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Thanks for all your replies guys... to elaborate a little: I currently pay £5.50 a month for the Family bundle with HD... I don't really want a new contract for £20+ a month because it will probably be more expensive (I think). My PS4 lives on top of the sky box, but it is never hot to the touch when pulling the plug on it. The box has been playing up for YEARS... but has been worse recently. Think it was about 18 month ago it decided to wipe all of our recordings for no reason. If its been playing up for ages without getting too much worse then I would look at whats causing it. I had similar issues when I had water on the cable. It would cause the sky box to receive naff signal and occasionally corrupt it so only a reset would fix it. Do you have dual input or single input into it? . Worth checking the signal is the same across the two inputs.
Joanne Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 Dual input, signal strength is full and quality is one block below full. Thing is, if I do a rebuild it will probably be OK for a couple of months, then play up again. I ordered a new sky card a few months back because on the other one, the chip had almost burnt through the plastic...
newpersn Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Sorry to hijack. How easy is it to upgrade an hard drive in a +HD Box?
Edu-IT Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Let us know after the update if you're still having problems. Think I have one.
LosOjos Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 I ordered a new sky card a few months back because on the other one, the chip had almost burnt through the plastic... This pretty much screams "overheating issue", then slaps you in the face with it. Repeatedly. Anywhere you can put it to get some more air to it?
Joanne Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 I'll try the whole, power it off tonight, hold down the back up button on the box while it's booting and it should update thing this evening. If it gets desperate I might crack it open and see what it looks like on the inside. Might scare it into working - - - Updated - - - This pretty much screams "overheating issue", then slaps you in the face with it. Repeatedly. Anywhere you can put it to get some more air to it? Well there was nothing on top of it before then, or around it. It lives on a glass TV stand... perhaps has a PS4 game box next to it, but not blocking anything... I'll have a move around tonight of the stuff... see if it makes any difference.
strawberry Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Dual input, signal strength is full and quality is one block below full. Thing is, if I do a rebuild it will probably be OK for a couple of months, then play up again. I ordered a new sky card a few months back because on the other one, the chip had almost burnt through the plastic... When it starts to play up check again, that's the nature of water and short circuits, works fine then boom!
Joanne Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 When it starts to play up check again, that's the nature of water and short circuits, works fine then boom! I don't quite get it... was water was running down the INSIDE of the cable?
strawberry Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 pretty much!. The sheath was damaged so every once in a while the cable got wet and sent corrupt signals to the box which in turn borked in different ways (EPG not available as it comes down cable2, box not booting, recordings disappearing, channels missing, slow booting) . I looked at the engineer with furrowed brow when he explained it to me but it transpires he was right!. I was convinced the HDD was on its way out.
Joanne Posted February 26, 2015 Author Posted February 26, 2015 Weird! Thanks for that. I'm gonna be on with the diagnostics this evening... couldn't do anything last night because my sister had set the Brits to record! Was having a look at the EE TV box, because I qualify for one and if you sign up you get a free tablet PC (albeit a rubbish one)... but on closer inspection it was just a fancy freeview box!
Nibiru Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 This pretty much screams "overheating issue", then slaps you in the face with it. Repeatedly. Anywhere you can put it to get some more air to it? White subs cards getting crispy around the chip is exceedingly common.
Nibiru Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 I don't quite get it... was water was running down the INSIDE of the cable? Poor waterproofing / termination at an outside join is the common reason. Im a satellite hobby enthusiast & I had signal problems on one of my dishes (Ive got several) a while back. When I disconnected the cable from the lnb on the dish I was more than a bit alarmed to see a good half a pint of water dribble out!
plexer Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 Indeed that's why the tape around the f connector outside should be self almalgamating to form a waterproof seal otherwise water will track along the inside of the coax. Ben
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