[Bryce Curdy]

I've got one of the original Sky+ Pace boxes, no longer under warantee. I'm fed up with a constant whining noise but am not sure what to do. I think it's the hard drive rather than the fan, as moving it to a better ventilated place has not helped. Turning instant rewind off makes minimal difference.

Should I just phone Sky? Will they offer to replace the box? Am I right that I will have to pay £69, and will probably end up with the 'inferior' Amstrad box?

Can I simply buy the supposedly better Pace box at Comet or wherever, and plug it in?

Can I buy another box entirely? If so, will I get all the features I have at the moment? What do you recommend?

Or should I hold off as I've a HDMI HD compatible plasma, and buy a new HD box next year?

Sorry if these questions are basic, and thanks in advance for any help.

[Starburst]

The noise is likely to be the hard drive, I assume the noise goes away when you put the box into standby?
If so then replace the HD, 5400rpm 40 gig drives are hard to find but you should be able to get some info on compatable drives here.


SKY could replace the box under the £65 call out assuming that they agree that something is wrong with it and there is no guarantee you will get a better box.
You can buy a brand new box, the basic SKY+ spec has not changed so what you have now you will have on the others models, apart from the SKY+ 160 though but that is far more expensive.

As for waiting until High Def arrives then unless I had a lot of HD programming right now it's perhaps not a cost effective solution for todays programming.
I would spend a fraction of the cost and buy a new SKY+ or upgrade an existing one and then smile at the savings to be made on a HD panel in 12-18 months

[Blu Ray]

I'd replace the hard drive. No point getting a 40gb one though, get a 160 or 200. Less than the call out charge!