Sky+ Box Freezing

decbuck

Hi

I recently got a sky plus box installed. But for the past day or two, it keeps freezing. I could put on RTE1 say, then it would freeze as if I pressed pause after about 5-6 seconds.

Then it would jump forward and be fine for another 5-6 seconds then freeze again.

It does not seem to be a consistant problem, and it seems to record fine. As even though it is freezing, I can rewind.

Not sure if it is co-incidence but all the "other channels" itv2 etc seem to work fine.

The box is a pace box. Is this a known problem?

I rang sky and they talked me through some settings, and said it looked fine.

Cheers

goodlad

I have been having the same problems myself for the past 2-3 weeks! its doin my head in. What seems to be random channels just freeze then tell me there is no satellite signal but every other channel works fine. Then the entire service locks up for a few seconds. It happened me lastnight in the middle of new stargate! Good thing they replay it! hehe!
But back to topic, i also called sky and they claimed that see no break in the signal to me even though i was looking at my screen saying it had no signal. I cant be my cable or all channels would be gone

ronanclinton

Guys, I had the same problem for ages, I mean years on certain channels (living in particular). I had SKY engineer out also, then we discovered rain had got into the cable from the LNB. We replaced the cable from the LNB to the attic connection where it was split. This problem went for a while but returned to my annoyance (cos I paid for the engineer visit). Anyway just recently got the SKY + installed and asked the installer to run two new cables. Had to go through the celing, but have the covered now. However, since I have not had the problem on any station. The cable they supply is a bit thicker then the old one and as you know the coaxil cable carries about 5amps through it. If the weather gets into the cable at all, that will travel down the cable. I am sure this is the problem I was having, no phone call to sky will cure this as signal etc were fine. You may need to change the cable.

Sam Radford

ronanclinton wrote: »

as you know the coaxil cable carries about 5amps through it.

Typo. You mean about 0.25 Amps LNB supply current.

Apart from cable and LNB faults, another cause is local interference from DECT phone base stations, microwave ovens etc. Switch everything off at the wall socket to test and make sure next door neighbour doesn't have anything like this.

Also, Thomson HD and Sky+ Digibox power supplies are dying like flies and causing "picture breakup" on movies and sports channels - but I don't think this is the cause of the problem in this case.

goodlad wrote: »

It can't be my cable or all channels would be gone

Wrong, but a common misconception.

dcom

Hi guys,

I have had the same problem with our sky+ box on and off for the past few months. I tried calling sky they did all the usual checks and everything seems fine from their end and they reckon the best solution is to get a new box....

The freezing has been getting worse as time goes by, it now happens on every channel and happens during recordings aswell. The real annoying thing is that it will suddenly stop and everything works fine for a week or two.

I have been stubborn and refused to call out an engineer just for him to tell me the same as they told me by phone, but its getting ridiculous now:eek:. I might be forced to bring in the 'experts'.

Our box was installed in March '06 and i thought i was happening because the box was 'old' but hearing you experiences its obviously not.

I have tried all I could think of, full system resets etc none of it works.

If you call out an engineer and he gives you a new box is that included in the call out fee???

kowloon

I'm on my 3rd Sky box and have freezing problems, reformatting the drive clears it for a while but you lose all your saved programs.
Engineer told us it was a known problem and that sky boxes in general are badly designed.
Might be the same problem.

Aquos76

I have the same Sky+ box over a year now and I have never gotten any freezzing problems.

dcom

kowloon wrote: »

I'm on my 3rd Sky box and have freezing problems.

Did they charge you for the 3 boxes???

I agree with you that reformatting works for a short while but it is hassle loosing everything from your planner

kowloon

I'd like to see them try to make me pay for a new box when they were faulty and in warranty.
Know your rights.
You can try asking for a refund of the sky subscriptions for the services you couldn't use aswell (hasn't happened for me though, they were quick to replace the boxes).

Ozzie

Same problem here. I got Sky+ in July. Picture started frezing after a few weeks. Got box replaced for a different problem. It has happened a couple of times with the new box. I find switching power off for a while sorts the problem, but it tends to come back after a while. I've noticed a friend's new box starting to do the same.....

There's a 60 yr old valve radio at home. It works perfectly. Never a problem. No 0818 numbers to Scottish call centres needed there....

dmeehan

seems to be a problem with the newer sky+ boxes. i have my sky+ over 2 and a half years with out any of these problems (touch wood). one of my neighbours got a new one last month and the freezing thingy happened to his box. he complained to the local installer that put it in for him and he replaced ith with a new* box

---

* I dont know if its a "new" box or a refurb, forgot to ask him

branners69

For what its worth, I had the same problems with freezing a year ago so I changed the harddrive to a 250gb 7200rpm one and it hasnt frozen once since!

wil

Coincidentally I had the same problem over the Christmas. Random freezing across any channel. Checked signal strengths and while they hadnt dropped below critical, they did show different levels and varied a little over time - odd,
Anyway a complete power down and reboot seems to have sorted it out for the moment.:)
So I suspect a little software instability in Sky+ boxes might be an issue.

simon tm

decbuck wrote: »

Hi

I had the same problem,the official advice from sky(after 25 mins) is this:Press the services button and select system setup.
press 0 1 then select,this brings up the installer menu.
select sky planner rebuild and press select,on screen message says housekeeping then the sky box turns itself off wait about one minute then turn back on as usual.none of your recordings will be lost,but dont do it if your recording cos it stops the recording.
hope this helps

etcetc

http://nice-design.co.uk/blog/sky-plus-system-fault-how-to-fix-faulty-sky-without-a65-callout-fee

system software update

same problem and done this no problems since