Sky - losing signal except on Sky News

duckson

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Hi,

Hope someone can advise me!

Got a SkyHD box (one of the newer smaller ones (1Tb?), had it 2 years) as my main box (dual feed) and an upgraded power supply Thomson SkyHD "original" box as a multiroom box on a single feed.

On the newer small SkyHD box we have just started losing Input 1 and hence the picture on pretty much every channel bar Sky News (Sky News is always ok).

I've done the following;
a) Swap the sat cable connections over at the Sky box but its lost input 1 (only) on both, this makes me think the cable isnt at fault as the fault doesnt affect input 2 (the fault hasnt followed when i've swapped the cable around).
b) Forced software download - no affect, well it worked OK for a few minutes then lost the channels again.
c) Reset the LNB via the engineers menu on the Sky box, again worked for a few minutes then lost the signal.

Occasionally the channels come back on but only stay on for 30 seconds and have lots of pixelisation coming and going before it loses it completely.
The multiroom box is fine, no problems at all! This leads me to believe the LNB hasnt been knocked out of alignment, would you agree?

The signal quality/strength are both well over 50% on both inputs when its working, obviously input 1 goes to zero/not locked when the channels are lost.

Is it likely to be the LNB or the box?

Note i cancelled my Sky subs last month and they expired 10 days ago so i'm on Free to view/air channels only at the moment.

Thanks for any advice.
 
If input 1 doesn't work on the third dish connection either then it's pretty conclusive where the fault lies.
If it does you're back to square one.
 
Sorry bud, please explain what you mean?

Swapped the main box and multiroom box over and having the same issues on the multiroom box although it drops the picture and input 2 signal drops to zero/not locked (input 1 is ok)....i thought the main viewed picture always used input 1?

Saying that its been fine for the last 10 minutes!
 
1Tb in the lounge is losing picture.
Old Thomson in the back room is fine.

Swapped them around, old Thomson in the lounge has the same losing signal issue although input 2 goes to zero when i was expecting input 1 too do this. 1Tb now in the back room has been fine, this seems to rule out the box.

Just swapped feeds over on the Thomson in the lounge, no difference, input 2 drops when the picture states its lost signal.

This to me rules out the cable?

I am leaning towards LNB now, the dish must be aligned right as the Sky in the back room has been fine on either box.
 
I'm always suspicious of Thomson boxes; especially if they have a no-name PSU upgrade. Please put the 1TB back where is was originally but don't connect the Thomson.
 
I used Ed Skingsley from the list at Satcure to replace the caps on the box :- Power Supply Repair Technicians
I believe he has used the recommended caps from Satcure, i even recall him saying beware the ones being sold on ebay as they are sub standard.
This was all 2 years ago, i got the 1Tb box when the Thomson went duff and everything has been fine since with both boxes.
 
please explain what you mean?
I meant what this looks as if you've done:
1Tb now in the back room has been fine, this seems to rule out the box
If it works fully with the multiroom dish connections then it's OK and the problem is in the main room's connections.
Those have developed a complication though as to which cable has the fault.
Are you sure that the fault shows itself the oher way around with the old multiroom machine?
 
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On the old multiroom box its only input 2 that drops signal (picture still goes and "no signal being received" pops up) no matter which way round i have the connections. If you look at my first post on the 1Tb box i have it was only input 1 that dropped no matter which connection i used.

I've resorted to putting the multiroom box into single feed mode and disconnected one of the feeds, will see how it goes over a few days and then swap the connections over to the other one.

It might be coincidence but i noticed since it has stopped raining (only light rain) earlier in the evening that the loss of signal has gradually got less and less common. Rain is forecast for Wednesday here so again i'll keep an eye on it and see if that could be something to do with it.
The LNB will need a ladder to get at unfortunately and i dont have one so checking the connections will have to wait!
 
OK Stu - you've answered my question about whether the fault shows itself differently on the two machines - you've found that it does - and that makes it even more difficult to explain.
I'd get a professional to go up the ladder and check things out at the dish.:)
 
Thought i'd update this.
Sky offered my 75% off my subs for 12 months and £50 credit so i went with it.
This gave me more incentive to get both feeds working!
Over the past few weeks i've found out just one feed wasnt working (it was working to start with but eventually died). Putting the box in single feed mode i could quickly swap between both feeds quickly so easy to find out the above.
Borrowed the ladders from my parents and went up and swapped the feed that was "no signal" over to the spare port on the Quad LNB (i have a single feed to another box in the back room so had 1 spare port on the Quad LNB).
Up to now it seems to be ok, but its only been a couple of hours!
 
A single LNB port not working is often caused by corrosion due to a lack of silicone grease. You might get it to work again by carefully pushing a paperclip in and out to remove the corrosion. The copper wire will sometimes look black or have white or green crystals on it. Clean and refit with silicone grease.
 

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