4th Sky+ box and still no joy...

C

ChristianLett

Guest
Hello,

I'm at my wits end with Sky - we're now on our fourth Sky+ box in 18 months. A brief history if I may:
- Box 1 worked for 12 months. End of warranty, picture and sound break-up. £65 for engineer to come out who installs new LNB (first one wasn't installed properly aparrently!) and...
- Box 2 worked for 3 months. End of warranty, picture and sound break-up. Sky demand another £65, I refuse and after an hour on the phone to "technical support" (both of those words are inappropriate) get a free call out. They install another new LNB and...
- Box 3 worked for about 30 minutes. No signal 2. Unplug, swap cables, yay - full signals. 5 minutes later, signal 2 dies again. Tech support very understanding. Same engineers come round and install...
- Box 4 works on some channels (BBC1 & 2) but won't live pause or record any other channels. Signals 100% on both. Done a software download and diskchecked the HD in my PC, a full system reset and a "new installation". Still no joy. Can't get through to tech support as they're too busy.

Live pause does pause the show, but doesn't restart from the pause point - just jumps to the current live point. Recording shows the message "Recording Interrupted. Please Wait" on all but a couple of channels. I've got a viewing card error message a couple of times but it's not consistent.

We've had so many problems we've now missed enough episodes of 3 TV series we were watching to give up on them!

Anyone else had these most recent problems, and any ideas (short of waiting a mind-numbing 74 minutes for tech support on the phone!) how to fix?

All boxes have been Amstrad, dispite my pleas for a Pace box. I'm considering going back to NTL - something I thought I'd never say!

Many thanks,

Christian
 
Latest problem sorted - after getting an 80 minute wait I decided to try again and enter a different phone number to my home number. This new 20 minute wait was more acceptable. Lucky, or are Sky up to something with call priorities?

Anyway, they hadn't paired my viewing card with the box, dispite me doing 2 "new installations". The nice bloke at Sky hit a button on his computer and within a couple of seconds everything was working properly.

Christian
 
Hi Christian,

I'm glad your problem is over. I had four Sky+ refurbished boxes one year. One failed as soon as the engineer went. and the others lasted a few weeks or months. As we had the full package one kind technical help man promised me a new Pace box (the others were Pace boxes). I probably sounded near to tears and just before Christmas we had a brand new Pace box.

I don't know whether you noticed this. My refurbished boxes all came from sub contractors who disconnected and connected everything whilst everything was connected to the mains. I wondered if this is why they failed so quickly. When my new box came I quickly pulled out the plug from the socket. Enjoy your new box, there's nothing like it when it works well!

On this forum there are a few threads as a lot of us have had serious problems in the last couple of months since the update.
 
Thanks for your reply Cynthia!

I hadn't actually given much thought to the plugged-in/not plugged-in scenarios you mentioned - something to remember for next time (the cynic in me just knows there'll be a next time!).

C
 
My Box has just started to freeze on every recording :thumbsdow so it looks like the hard drive's gone after 2 years.

Thought i'd try Sky Technical support. Entered my home number in and told i'd have a forty minute wait. Hung up, and tried a couple of minutes later but entered any old number in. Hey presto and 13 minutes later i was on the phone to a numpty.

Told him i'd done all the usual resets, forced software download ect. He informed me that the hard drive had failed (i told him that) and politely asked for £65.00 to have an engineer change the box for a new one. I reminded him that they supply Re-Con boxes and he said reluctantly agreed. Then he told me that it would only be guarenteed for 90 days.

At this point, i asked what would happen if i wanted to cancel, and he just gave me the number without any fuss whatsoever. Think i'll be fitting a new hard drive myself so that at least i know it will work for more than 90 days.

Steve
 
Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear about the faulty box, but I think you are taking the sensible route in fitting a new hard drive. I had four refurbished Sky+ boxes one year so the £65 box isn't always a good way to go. Mine, luckily, were free as the original was under guarantee.

Let us know if this cures your problem or is it just down to the disastrous update!
 

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