Sky+ box not working after only 3 days!

[mleonard79]

Hi everyone,

I desperately need some help with my new sky+ box. I'm quite new to the forum and not the most experienced when it comes to things of a techie nature! I got a sky+ box put in the bedroom on Tues to replace the old digibox which never had any problems (Thomson make I now see.) I already have sky+ in the living room but wanted one in the bedroom too. It started off noisy and slow then last night it froze during live rewinding and I noticed that I couldn't watch anything I'd recorded and just now it's stopped working all together! I'll go through what's happened in detail in case it helps.

I noticed straight away that despite being newer this box was a lot noisier than the year old one in the living room. It was also a lot slower to change channels and start up rewinding and makes noisy clicking noises even when sky's off. I was a bit baffled by this but didn't think it was enough to complain about. I thought that all the extra fan slats and perhaps it having a larger memory was to blame for this (although the sky engineers said it had double the memory I've since noticed that it doesn't at all as they're both 80gb boxes .)

Then from reading this forum I saw that there are different makes of sky+ box - something I was unaware of so didn't bother to check what they were giving me. Have had a look at it now and it's an Amstrad DRX280. This is different from what it says in setup - it says

Amstrad
Model no A21AE11
Version No 4F2104
Operating System 1.30E
EPG Software Version Sky+ 1.30.q.

As far as the software goes I know this is not the up-to-date version as the Sky engineers stayed for an hour trying to download it onto the system and it didn't work. They then said that it should fix itself automatically during the night and the only difference was that the sky planner is on button 0 instead of the green button which I wasn't too bothered about anyway but I'm now thinking maybe it makes more of a difference than just that. Could this be causing all these problems? It never did automatically fix itself. Is this the most up-to-date Op System too?

The fact it's an Amstrad also explains the difference between it and our other box as it's a

Pace TDS470N
Model no 4.008b
Version no 9F2202
Operating System 1.31AOK (is this an older or newer Op system? surely it can't be newer!)
EPG software sky+ 4.01a (I'm assuming this is the right software as can press the green button for the planner.)

To be honest we've had problems with this one too - it often freezes when rewinding live tv so we have to abandon rewinding and put it back to normal playback (quite annoying!) It is very temperamental about live rewinding - sometimes it does it and sometimes it doesn't. It's never failed, however, when recording or playing back or rewinding during playback so I've never bothered to complain about the live rewind prob (know I should've but it wasn't the most important thing!) Anyway I told the sky engineers about it when they were here and they said to change the instant rewind setting from 30 mins to 60 mins and that should fix it so I did that and lo and behold while it was working before it's now freezing again! As it didn't work I put it back to 30 mins but it's still freezing up - great! Everything else still works as normal though.

Anyway back to the new box - I'd not used it much since I got it on Tues but I had recorded a few things I wanted to see. Then last night I was watching something and tried to use the live rewind function. It worked fine for a while but then suddenly stopped working and froze as soon as I pressed it. I had to press the sky button to exit it. It still won't work today. Worse than that though I then went to the sky planner to watch something I'd recorded and when I clicked on it to play it just froze too. I couldn't press back-up to get to the planner either so again had to press the sky button to exit. I went back and tried everything else I recorded and it was all the same. I then tried to record something new and after i'd done it it said failed in the record section. This morning I have tried everything again hoping leaving it overnight it would fix itself but it was just the same so I again tried to record something and this time when I tried to press play a message came up saying you cannot watch this recorded programme, please call xxxxx and then it disappeared before I could read any more and a green line went down the left side of the screen and it turned itself off. I wasn't able to turn it back on so now I have no sky at all!! I've turned it off in the hope it'll turn back on when I try.

Anyone have any ideas on what the heck is going on with this thing and what I could do to at least get my sky pics back for today?

I'm assuming this is an extremely faulty box and I'm not happy with it at all. I want to ring, complain and get it replaced but I'm a bit wary about ringing on a sunday in case I can't get the complaints dept and get what I need. As we have sky in the living rm I don't mind waiting til tomorrow to get through to the right people. I want to be fully armed with what I should say to them though so can anyone tell me what the best, most reliable and most up-to-date make and model of sky+ box is that I should ask them for? I'm annoyed it's not double the memory as they said too. I feel they should accomodate my request since they've given me such a duff box and I've lost everything I've recorded this week! Grr - rant over!! Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Regards

Michelle

[SamRadford]

The most reliable models are made by Pace. Most people seem to prefer the Pace BSKYB3100 and you already have a Pace TDS470N. The Sky installer should not have left the Digibox without updating the software.

Sky won't let you choose a specific model (regardless of what they say on the 'phone to pacify you). You just get what's on the van.

Any replacement box is likely to be an old "refurbished" model with a 3 month warranty. If you paid full price for it then you should have the right to demand what you want. Otherwise you get what you're given.

(Are you cooking the Digibox or have you got it by itself on an open shelf in a cool room? It can make a big difference.)

[mleonard79]

Hi Sam Radford,

So the Pace is the most reliable then - that doesn't bode well considering ours is so temperamental!! I guess it's def better than this amstrad one though. What's the difference between the pace BSkyB3100 and the TDS470N then? Is there a 160gb box out there as I was told that it would have double our old box and they're both the same

So they shouldn't have left it like this then - what can I do about the software issue, do I need them to come back out to fix it or can I do anything myself to update it? Do you think it could be causing all these problems?

Do you think the one I got is an old refurbished model with a 3 month warranty then? I got it through an aviva employee deal - it was the £99 fee but I got £50 off due to the employee code. That should mean I'm entitled to a new box surely?

As for cooking the digibox the engineers did say to me that nothing could be put on top of it. They set it up with it sitting on top of the DVD player (there's only one shelf under the tv so there's no other way to do it.) It's got plenty of air at the top though and it's near a window which is usually open so I'm hoping that's not the problem.

I've turned it back on to see if I could get a picture and I can get onto sky now but all the other problems are still there. Didn't want to mess with it in case I lose connection altogether again! What should I do? Thanks for the help.

[beerhunter]

In my opinion it doesn't matter what deal you got or how much you paid. Under the various Sales of Goods and Supply of Goods and Service Acts you are entiled to something that is 'of merchantable quality' - in other words works correctly. If it doesn't, you are entitled to a refund, new box or repair - your choice. There is a very good fact sheet on the DTI's web site.Q&A

[mleonard79]

Hi beerhunter,

Thanks for that. If they get shirty with me I'll quote that at them! I think you're right, this box is not of a good quality and they should have supplied me with something that works properly whether or not it's the best make they have or not. I've just tried the live rewind thing and it seems to be working again but god knows when it'll stop again. I don't trust this box now as I feel I shouldn't have problems like this after only a couple of days! Thanks.