Sky Cable Cut/Damaged - Help Please

[AkhilStyle]

Hi,

I have Sky+ HD and I have one of those double Sky cables coming into my house from the dish and under the ground to my TV.

I noticed that record wasn't working properly and on further investigation it says signal cable 1 is fine/has signal, but none for cable 2. Had a look at the cables outside and they booth look a bit cut up in one particular area. Cable 2 is worse with some of the silver outer wire showing. So initially I was going to by some connectors and a female and cut out the damaged part and fix it (because there's a lot of extra cable). Question 1 - would I be able to fix the damaged cable section in this way - I.E. is it possible to do what I am suggesting?

2nd Question - Did a bit more of an investigation and I took both the feeds out of the Sky box and put the working cable feed 1 into the 2nd slot on the sky box - but in signal settings its not getting a signal from the working cable. Now that the working cable is not working in the 2nd slot - could there be something wrong with the 2nd signal slot on the box? (Blown fuse or something). Tried cable 2 (non working cable) in 1st slot and that is not working either - therefore the cable is definitely damaged.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[AkhilStyle]

Additional Info -

Could I use the following to fix the damaged portion of wire -

Twist on F Plugs
F Socket-Socket Coupler

 

[MartinPickering]

Yes but £2.19 for an F plug is laughable. Make sure you get the correct plugs for the specific cable.

"Cable repair joint kit - Google Search

 

[logiciel]

That's the sort of price that goes with £50 HDMI cables - crazy!
Why is there cable under the ground?
Why is there a lot of extra cable?
They're both bad ideas.
If you do have to cut and join it that will have to be well protected against the weather - and the ground!
On the second point there obviously IS something wrong with the machine, so the usual question - what model is it?

 

[AkhilStyle]

Thanks for the reply.

The cables go down the external wall of my house then in a cavity under the floor boards of my house (which is where there is around 2-3 metres extra cable then up the inside of an internal wall to my tv and sky box mounted on that wall.

Ordered some of those connectors of ebay for a lot less and so will join that and protect it from the elements by attaching one of those joining boxes around it and plenty of tape.

The box says amstrad DRX890 on the back.

Thank you very much for your help

 

[logiciel]

That's OK and it's not as bad as it sounded at first - going under the floor should be OK, though it does raise the question of how the damage happened.
The extra cable isn't too bad either though you might as well shorten it at the same time, and the PVR is very reliable and shouldn't be developing any faults.

 

[AkhilStyle]

Thanks again for the reply

What does PVR mean? (sorry a bit of a noob)

Also the damage didnt happen on the portion of cable under the floor, it happened to the cable that was nailed to my external wall about 1 foot above the ground - dont have any idea how it happened - maybe an animal chewed it? that's the only thing i can think.

I found some of those f-plugs and a joining kit in my garage and so did the repair this evening. Tested both cables in the "signal 1" slot on my sky box and both getting a signal now so that did the trick. The "signal 2" slot still doesn't work so seems like somethings up - called up sky and they said I'm still under warranty and it seems like a box issue so are going to send someone around next week - just wanted to try to figure it out myself ha!

Cheers

 

[logiciel]

Personal Video Recorder - it's just a quick but accurate way of referring to the machine.
What actually happens when either cable is screwed into the Dish Input 2 socket?
Do you mean the menu shows no signal on it, or is there some other indication of it not working?
The 890 is reliable but if yours has a fault then of course it's up to Sky to fix it regardless of "warranties".

 

[AkhilStyle]

Oh right - thought so!

When either one is plugged into dish input socket 2 there is no signal for that input - what i mean by that is that when i goto settings, and signals, the dish input 2 signal strength and quality bars show 0%.

Therefore i cannot record one channel and go to another channel.

Thanks again

 

[logiciel]

You're welcome and the problem is clear now, though it's unusual for an 890.
Sky have done reasonably well in arranging to fix it so let us know how it goes.