SKY+ box keeps switching off by itself

Comhrá

My Pace SKY+ box keeps switching itself off about two or three times a day and it takes a while to reboot it again.
I've brought it into the SKY dealer here in Limerick but they say they can't replicate the problem in the shop.

It's only eight months old but they won't replace it because they claim they can see nothing wrong with it.

Anyone have problems with these Pace boxes? Model is 4.044 and as I say, it's just eight months old.

John.

byte

Is there a chance that you have Auto Standby enabled? Dunno how often this feature puts box into standby, but it can be disabled (in Services >> Sky+ Setup I think)

Comhrá

No, I disabled auto standby. The box just goes off suddenly at random times, usually when I'm enjoying something on tv! Sometimes it takes several minutes before the power-on button on the remote will turn the light on the box back to green from red, the hard-drive spins up and it's ok for another while. That's how it goes. Manually pressing the power button on the box itself takes several attempts before it turns back on.

dingding

I read in the sky magazine that they have figured a way to power the sky box down at night, would it be this.

Perhaps you need to change the stations every so often so the box knows that it is been watched ?

Comhrá

The box turns off while I'm actually watching TV. No real pattern, i.e. it turned itself off twice during the 9 o'clock news the other night. Last night it stayed on all night.
This is purely random, and it takes ages for it to power up again. Apparently the hard drive needs a few moments to get going, just like a home PC takes a while to boot up. That's what the SKY dealer intown tells me anyway.
Very frustrating. I may downgrade from SKY+ and just buy a DVD recorder if this persists.

John.

mustang68

Would you be having power brown outs? If they can't replicate it, it may be a power issue, how is the wiring? Some power drops will leave your TV and stuff running, but the sky box may be shutting down with undervoltage protection.

conax

May be just a faulty box.
might be no harm to try a forced backup.
does it happen during daylight hours?

Clash

mustang68 wrote:

Would you be having power brown outs? If they can't replicate it, it may be a power issue, how is the wiring? Some power drops will leave your TV and stuff running, but the sky box may be shutting down with undervoltage protection.

I'd go along with that. If you have a multimeter, check your voltage when it powers down. I have seen several instances of this happening with computers and even causing blown power supplies.

It takes a while to power up again because it does a full reset when the pwer drops. It's the same with the ordinary sky boxes, so you won't gain anything by downgrading.

Comhrá

Maybe.....I hadn't thought of that. Although my PC is always on in the house and doesn't switch off when the SKY box goes. Also, the previous non Sky+ box never had this issue.

I'm going to monitor the times it happens just to see if there's a pattern.
Might try to have the voltage checked too if I can manage that.
Sounds like something like that could be the cause.

Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

John.

Comhrá

Maybe.....I hadn't thought of that. Although my PC is always on in the house and doesn't switch off when the SKY box goes. Also, the previous non Sky+ box never had this issue.

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does it happen during daylight hours?

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Yes. It's pretty well random though, but I've noticed it most in the evenings and early night, but that's the time I'm home watching TV :-)


I'm going to monitor the times it happens just to see if there's a pattern.
Might try to have the voltage checked too if I can manage that.
Sounds like something like that could be the cause.

Thanks for the advice and suggestions.

John.