Future Recordings Failed

mustang68

I've had a weird one on my SkyHD box twice now: I come in, go to the planner and find "Recording Failed" (reason is power cut), but the recording is in the future! The only way to sort it is to delete it, and select it again and that will work.

Normally its accompanied by other oddness, which eventually leads to "Technical Fault" with all channels and the box needs a reboot.

BrianPK

Failed future recordings is a common problem .Possibly caused by SKY bug but also if accompanied by "no sat signal" and signal break up on certain channels on boxes around a year old may point to failing capacitors in power supply unit.If the latter this can be replaced by you if the box is out of warranty and you particularly want to retain that box and its recordings.

DroghedaGraham

I have the exact same problem and my box. failed future recordings, signal break up and the box is 13 months old, how do I replace these capacitor things or get them to begin with?

LarMan

I have the same problem today as well.

BrianPK

See here and have an interesting read
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=727185

mathias

Damn !

Same issue is happening here , looks like I'll have to get one of those new PSU's and fix the damn thing.

I wonder if its possible to nail Sky on the reasonable usage thing ?

DroghedaGraham

I think its a bit of a scam that so many people have the same problems with the HD boxes just after the 12 month warranty expires.

Clearly these boxes are not fit for their intended purposes. I paid €449 for whats turning into a brick. I will send if off to be fixed as no way am I paying Sky for another one....ever!

mathias

Theres a number of options here ,

http://www.satcure.com/accs/page12.htm#hd

A capacitor kit is the cheapest but obviously you need to know how to solder and need a little bit of electronics knowledge , ( these caps blow up if they are put in the wrong way round )

Theres a power supply rebuilt with good caps , cheap if you send your old one back ,

Or theres a straight replacement.

With the power supplies its just a straight swap , no soldering involved.

Its 50 sterling for the power supply , that would be about 75 euro , cheaper than a new box I suppose ?

Im going to ring sky , show them this , and see what they have to say , Im not paying them to send an incompetent twit out to me again , all they do is get on the roof and check the dish , I know thats fine at this stage!
Otherwise Im doing this myself , Im confident it will work looking at the info in the link!

byte

Handy link mathias.

I'd personally go for the rebuilt one, as it would appear to have superior caps than stock power supplies.

mathias

The only offer sky are giving me is that they will repair the box for 65 euro , and there would be no guarantee they would put in the superior caps the box has to go back to be repaired ,

I tried to order one of the supplies , the order is in but theres a waiting list due to unexpected high demand , they are holding my order and hope to tell me friday when they can have one out to me ,

They have plenty of the originals , that might get me back up and running for now and I'll also order a capacitor kit and repair the supply I'm taking out for the future .....decisions !

mathias

My new power supply shipped today , I should have it by wednesday, I will document the install , pictures and all , and post it , so everyone can see how easy or hard it is to do and whether its a success or not.

Sam Radford

Problem with Sky's generous 65 euro offer is that you'll get a "refurbished" box with only a 90 day warranty.

BrianPK

mathias wrote: »

My new power supply shipped today , I should have it by wednesday, I will document the install , pictures and all , and post it , so everyone can see how easy or hard it is to do and whether its a success or not.

It's simple and a great success but the biggest problem you will have is putting the rubber legs of the fan back on.The reason you disturb the fan is that one of the screws you need to get at is behind the fan.It's an exquisite form of Chinese torture.No electric or electronic experience is required to do this, just a good selection of swear words when refitting the fan:DTry and twist the legs to get at the screw without removing them.If you must remove them and can't get them back on just scrap them and use narrow nuts and bolts instead.

mathias

It's simple and a great success but the biggest problem you will have is putting the rubber legs of the fan back on.

I got my power supply this morning an installed it , great success , I now have anytime back , I can watch HD channels , which were unwatchable before , there were clearly bad caps on the old power supply , swollen and starting to leak on top , and best of all , Satcure must be reading about the problem fan and actually supplied some plastic nuts and bolts so that the fiddling with the rubber grommets wouldnt be a problem ,

Delighted with the results , I will type up a " how to Doc " and post it , I took pictures of the whole process.

As you say Brian , it was very simple.

Sam Radford

I see that Satcure are now offering those "rubber pins". They have long tails that let you pull them through. See picture:-
http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page12.htm#hd

BTW I seem to recall that Satcure offer a tenner (10 GBP) for "how to" articles with photos.

Sam Radford

Yes, found it. They offer a tenner. See "Write to us" here:-
http://www.satcure.com/reviews/review103.htm#00

mathias

Heres a link to a procedure I made today for replacing the psu , it may be some help to people who havnt done this type of thing before ,

http://www.mediafire.com/?a0lnzn8vtvw

Sam Radford

I have reported this to Satcure. I hope you don't mind but I think you deserve to get your tenner!

mathias

Satcure have been in touch , they are going to offer the procedure free with the supply and I got my tenner , Cheers

BrianPK

Congratulations mathias.
An excellent effort.Well done:)

Btw did you fit the replacement psu or the "superior" rebuilt one?I see that a few people have claimed an improved picture quality after the refit.I can't see any change myself but I always had a good picture anyway.

mathias

As far as I know I just got a replacement one , however the caps were different than the original , I dont know if they are superior caps , maybe Thomson have copped on to the problem and replacement PSU's have better caps , I cant say , but I intend to fix up my old PSU when I have the time and keep it for future use just in case.

The picture seems better now , but of course Ive been watching with a dodgy power supply for a few weeks , so its bound to be better. I couldnt say if its any better than when the box was good or not.

By the way , Satcure now have the procedure for download also ,

http://www.satcure.co.uk/pdfs/Replacing_SkyHD_PSU.pdf

Sam Radford

Apparently the really good capacitors are brown with a gold stripe:
http://notonyourtelly.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6601#6601

BrianPK

Satcure stated in their monthly newsletter that they use "slightly better" caps in their std psu.They also said that they are investigating why a small no .of std units have been "dead on arrival" to the customer i.e. don't work.But from my reading I believe they are instantaneous in the replacement of such units.
A poster in a/v forums said a few weeks ago that Satcure were using a mix of Nichicon and Panasonic caps on the std units.

byte

mathias wrote: »

Heres a link to a procedure I made today for replacing the psu , it may be some help to people who havnt done this type of thing before ,

http://www.mediafire.com/?a0lnzn8vtvw

Great report, mathias.

With your permission, I'd like to stick it in the Sticky FAQ thread.

Sam Radford

I notice that the file size says 1.82MB but the one I just downloaded from the Satcure link is only 0.77MB.

mathias

With your permission, I'd like to stick it in the Sticky FAQ thread.

No problem , please go ahead.

I notice that the file size says 1.82MB but the one I just downloaded from the Satcure link is only 0.77MB.

Yes , I did it in openoffice and exported as pdf , The guys at Satcure managed to shrink it down , but its exactly the same content.

Sam Radford

Ah, OK. I couldn't see any obvious difference but it downloaded much faster.