Sky Digital Problems

netwhizkid

Recently my sky is gone all wonky. All the music channels from Mtv Hits 341 to TMF are giving me the "No Satellite Signal is being received" message and when I check it on system set-up it is quite low and is moving up and down, there isn't a puff of wind and it was like this the last few days in the heat too.

It also happened about 2 weeks ago but about 5 power-down & power-ups later, it fixed it self. I put my own Yellow Brick Satellite Meter on the cable last night and it is registering around the 80% mark where it has been at since installation in 2001. The Sky internal meter isn't registering this at all. I have tried powering it up & down several times this morning and no good. I rang the sky number and it said :- Get this "Your call will be answered in 40mins" like I'm not staying on the phone for that long. We have the Digibox a Grundig since the old pace packed up in April 2004. So it is relatively new.

These are its specs below.

Manufacturer: Grundig

Model number: 2.78a

Version Number: 4E0302

Operating System Version: 1.2S4FE

EPG Software Version: 3.4.4b

It is an ordinary Sky box and is not a Sky+ digibox. When they replaced this, they charged €108 for the call out and subsequent replacement box. They had replaced the earlier Pace with another Grundig but that packed up three months later and they didn't want to replace that free of charge so I threatened to cancel the subscription otherwise. They buckled and gave the current Grundig free of charge. It really is a piece of Junk as it takes ages to load the EPG and change channels etc.

Anyone have any advice on what to do in sticky situation?

byte

It's possibly the box indeed.

Does your yellow brick meter measure HH/HL/VH/VL seperately? This is important in making sure the LNB is switching properly.

netwhizkid

byte wrote:

It's possibly the box indeed.

Does your yellow brick meter measure HH/HL/VH/VL separately? This is important in making sure the LNB is switching properly.

Hi, thanks for the reply byte,

The last day when I measured the strength readout on my meter I used an extension cable from the Meter and joined it to the lead going into the back of the Digibox I got 80% then but today I joined it directly to my meter and got 91% for the Signal strength of Astra 28.2. I measured the Horizontal and was averaging between 85% & 88% my Vertical was ranging from 75% to 81%.

I have good feeling it is the Digibox but will try it in a relation’s house maybe tomorrow to double-check it.

My meter doesn’t have HH/HL/VH/VL settings you spoke of, but just has the Signal Strength, Horizontal and Vertical. You can see it in the attachment.

Once again thanks for the help, I'll keep the thread up to date with my findings etc.

byte

Ah yes, we used to have one of those alright. While it was OK for telling the difference between Horizontal and Vertical, it wasn't able to go further and seperate high and low.

Are any other channels missing apart from some of the MTV bouquet?

netwhizkid

byte wrote:

Ah yes, we used to have one of those alright. While it was OK for telling the difference between Horizontal and Vertical, it wasn't able to go further and seperate high and low.

Are any other channels missing apart from some of the MTV bouquet?

Yes Sky News and a good few of the Gambling Shopping Channels are all giving the "No Satellite Signal is being received" message I went through it earlier and about a third are giving trouble somewhere along the line. I guess it has to do with the frequencies, BBC 1 & 2 NI are also giving trouble. I will try it at a different house maybe tomorrow to try and rule out any Satellite Dish or LNB problems. I managed to get Sky on the phone this evening and they would like €100 to provide me with a new Digibox, I presume they can be got cheaper elsewhere? Any problems with the Satellite Dish/LNB or Cabling can be taken care of by myself as I have the equipment and know how.

Thanks for your help once again.