No access to Hard drive AGAIN!!!

[tenpintaker]

After all the posts regarding the last software 'update' (no access to HDD etc.) my box was reversed (back to version e)and all was well, apart from fan running all the time, but I can live with that. Saturday night SKY decided to send me version d..... now no access to HDD AGAIN! I have an upgraded HDD. Could this be the Big Brother not allowing upgrades, even to boxes that are out of warranty>>>>>>>>>>>.

I will be emailing SKY again, again, again....

[pdiddy76]

lol i am sure there is a spotty little urchin who got beat up at school in a room with a button for everybodys Sky system and he just randomly presses them.

Try and reset the box make sure auto standby is switched off and if you can access the planner leave on till the software changes

[tenpintaker]

Thanx pdiddy76, I am sure you are right about the spotty kid. ;-)
Did the reset thing and, yes, left it on, so much for global warming! I felt a certain deja vou............

Not had chance to email Sky yet. Will update as it rolls on, and on, and on......

[Crazius]

I had problems on Saturday too. Never noticed till Demons on ITV wouldn't work. Worked on freeview box and Sky box upstairs. I had to cancel all recordings to get it to work and then I found that anything being recorded was all that I could watch and I could only watch and record the one channel at a time which is pointless.

Sky told a friend they need a new box. I did a full system reset and fixed it myself. My friend had to pay a callout fee and probably pay for a refurbished box which was probably a box taken from his neighbour who had the same problem. The Sky guy did a full system reset at my friends house when installing it and this whole affair smells of a scam!

Full system reset can be done as follows:

You should press services>system setup> then 0 then 1 then SELECT

Now you will have the engineer setup.
Try planner rebuild first (which SHOULDN'T loose anything)
If this doesn't work do a full system reset which will reformat your HDD.
The full reset will loose ALL recordings and things you have in your planner.

I personally just went straight to a system reset and it did work.

Seems like a lot of Sky customers got duped by a similar update scam back in November. An error that Sky refuse to accept as being their doing.

[tenpintaker]

What are the **** at Sky playing at???? Got home from work yesterday, checked that I was not going mad (madder) and, hey presto, as if by magic the software had rolled back to version d during the day. All seems ok, it recorded some progs last night. There is a slight delay in accessing the HDD but I can live with that.
Does any one know how we get the software? Is it via the phone line or is it downloaded via the satellite? Could unplug my phone line to stop the changes......... I await the next chapter in the 'Big Brother is watching you' Sky saga.

[pdiddy76]

Sky download via the satellite unfortunately and there is no way of disabling it and if you could would you? The reason i ask is the updates can be good for the systems and ourselves in the sense of adding new channels and back when Anytime started and you have a box that is capable of recieving the anytime function with out the software update you would not have the option to use anytime.
So the questions are:
Do we want to disable automatic updates?
OR
Do we want Sky to use a bit qaulity control (for once) and roll out stable software updates?

i await ur oppinions



Pdiddy

[Crazius]

Problem is Sky give customers a variety of boxes and when they update, they don't always have a positive effect on some models due to incompatibility.

It's like trying to update an old PC with the wrong drivers. I notice that 3 threads regarding Sky+ problems all started on Saturday 10th January 2009 and that just cannot be a coincidence?

But why try to fix a problem when you can profit from it?

Resetting in the Engineering options was the only way I fixed this problem.

[tenpintaker]

@pdiddy, you are right, in principle I would not want to disable updates, I don't on my PC and I guess my Sky box is the same. Your comment about quality control is so valid, as can been seen from the many posts following an 'upgrade'



@crazius, and now Sky owns Amstrad they are in complete control. It's a little past 1984 but we are getting close to the books message!

[davemurgatroyd2]

The major problem with any upgrade to your Sky+ box is that Sky cannot test for all variations of HDD that customers will fit and there are so many different factors of HDD performance that can affect PVR performance - spin up time, access time, buffer size, power usage to name but 4. Also although an upgrade HDD may appear stable on a current software release there is no guarantee that it will work on the next release unless the HDD has identical properties to the OEM disk. Having over the last eight years upgraded many PVRs (Freeview, Sky and non Sky satellite PVRs) I have come across many similar problems across numerous makes. Software writers write their software to suit a particular spec. On many PVRs the only safe upgrade is a larger HDD from the same maker and model range as this is most likely to have the required characteristics and perform in the same way. Anything else is a matter of try it and see and don't moan and blame Sky if an update screws it up because you haven't followed that advice. Remember Sky have never published an approved list of upgrade HDD - the only ones available are from those who have tried different drives and there is no guarantee they will stay compatable.

[tenpintaker]

@davemurgatroyd2. Ooo handbags at dawn!!
Ok, I take your point! But if Sky are so stingy to only allow a meagre sized hard drive in their precious boxes, people will want to upsize. Why does Sky not publish a list of suitable upgrade drives, or, here is a money spinning idea, don't supply a drive at all and let you customise your box with the drive size of choice?? Bought from the mighty Sky of course! As far as 'blaming' Sky for problems I understand that the last upgrade (Nov 08) also affected Pace v2 non up graded boxes too, and they were supplied by Sky. Don't get me wrong, I am not beating up on Sky, I have been a subscriber since the analogue days but, I am beating up on the inflexibility of the technology.

[Crazius]

Originally Posted by davemurgatroyd2

Anything else is a matter of try it and see and don't moan and blame Sky if an update screws it up because you haven't followed that advice.

Right I do get your point but if my box has never been modified or upgraded by myself and Sky supplied it as new. Just who is to blame for this?



One link to look at is:
http://nice-design.co.uk/blog/sky-pl...65-callout-fee

[Crazius]

Just a quick note. I contacted BBC Watchdog about this. If any of you have any correspondence or bills regarding this issue then please contact them on their webpage via the 'got a story' link.

At least we'll find out what is really going on.

Last time I had a problem they put me on hold for 40 minutes and the next time I phoned I was on hold for 70 minutes. Buggers!

Regards

Crazius

[davemurgatroyd2]

Originally Posted by tenpintaker

@davemurgatroyd2. Ooo handbags at dawn!!
Ok, I take your point! But if Sky are so stingy to only allow a meagre sized hard drive in their precious boxes, people will want to upsize. Why does Sky not publish a list of suitable upgrade drives, or, here is a money spinning idea, don't supply a drive at all and let you customise your box with the drive size of choice?? Bought from the mighty Sky of course! As far as 'blaming' Sky for problems I understand that the last upgrade (Nov 08) also affected Pace v2 non up graded boxes too, and they were supplied by Sky. Don't get me wrong, I am not beating up on Sky, I have been a subscriber since the analogue days but, I am beating up on the inflexibility of the technology.

I don't know whether you are aware or not but there are already many differences between boxes of the same type and manufacturer - each version number (the 9F2xxx, 4F2xxx number etc) denotes a hardware difference, This can be as simple as a different manufacturer of power supply or a completely different set of video chips etc. For instance the Pace 2500 standard box has 25 different versions! If they started messing around with different hard disks they would have even more versions of box to test compatability of any new software with so probably for reasons of practicality have not bothered even considering it.

Sky at the time of the PVR2 did release one model of Sky+ with a 160Gb HDD (all usuable by the customer) the Thomson 160. But although popular with a small section of the customer base it was not a rousing success so they presumably decided there was not enough of a market to warrant the continuance of such ventures for a minimal market, they after all are mainly a broadcaster rather than primarily a hardware supplier.

[Crazius]

So we understand that there are dozens of models of Sky box and each model probably requires a unique update to avoid errors.

I just wish Sky had used boxes which simply check the update against its' model number and then decide if the update is going to be compatible or not. That way they could send out updates and only those that are valid for the hardware would be used.

Thanks Dave for mentioning just how many model types there might be out there. Seems like this update issue may be a problem we'll keep hearing about in the near future till a decent resolution can be found.