Pace Sky digibox - problems starting up...

Inspector Gadget

Hi All:

Have an older Pace Sky Digibox, was working fine until yesterday. Basic story is this: installed a dual LNB (a Metronic one I picked up in Maplin for fifty-ish euro?) on the dish, one end is plugged into the Panasonic Sky box under the main TV, and wanted to use this spare Pace box to get the FTA channels in another room. Pretty soon after starting it up, it had a bit of a moment for itself and now doesn't fire up.

(I have my suspicions that the power supplies driving the LNB in both boxes had a bit of a fight, and one lost, but I don't know that much about these things)

Anyway, the power light comes on; it flashes the "remote command" LED when you point the remote at it, but only comes on once in each hundred-plus attempts, and because I'm repeatedly stabbing the button to try and get it to switch on, I've always managed to turn it off again before I realise it's come on

I popped the lid off, and can confirm that the voltages are good off the power supply (they're all conveniently marked), and the power button itself is fine... also, at one stage, I managed to get it to do a forced software update (the "press and hold back up while powering it up" thing), and it stayed on for the duration...

...any ideas?

It's not enormously important that we get it working, but it'd be nice. Any input appreciated.
Gadget

steveon

Check the cabling for a short. Try removing the coax cable and see if the receiver will stay on?

Inspector Gadget

Hi steveon:

I can plug the Panasonic digibox into the same cable and it works every time, so I don't think that's it. Also, it doesn't seem to matter to the broken box whether the coax cable is in or not

Thanks (any more ideas?),
Gadget

steveon

Could be the tuner in your pace box....when u done a forced software upgrade did the four lights come on the front of the box?

Inspector Gadget

Hi Steveon - yes, they did - is that good or bad?

Gadget

byte

The 4 Lights coming on is normal, it's whether or not they go off afterwards.

I think it's bad practice to do forced downloads, without confirming that the receiver works or that it has signal.

If the box is a Pace 2200/2500 series, it could be the tuner. A known fault.

Inspector Gadget

If I'm honest, the forced reset wasn't on purpose... it was one of those "hey, what's it doing?" moments.

I'll have to take a look at the box and see what model it is - thanks.

(It looks like the tuner itself is plugged in - if I get a replacement, I may need to figure out how to get it around that F-socket that juts out the back?)

Cheers,
Gadget