sky+ box buggered...looking for options and cheapest way to replace

fifib

my parents sky+ is buggered. the only thing it does is show a red light at the front. think the HD must be gone. tried the software upgrade method by holding the backup buton while rebooting and no joy

before i ring sky...where i know they will say €100 for engineer to call out and €50 for new box...anyone got any other ideas?

they do not want to spend more money on replacing the box, so if need be i will cancel the sky+. the have a digibox still int he kitchen working perfectly. i presume from my bill whether you have shy + or just regular sky the channel costs are the same so if i cancelled sky+ it would just cancel the multiroom charge?

if need be also they are prepared to cancel sky altogether and go with NTL, or reregister as new customers of sky
they have been sky customers since sky first arrived in Ireland and had their fair share of problems in the past. we currently have 2 dishes up...1 an engineer put on chimney after old 1 rusted to bits...then that broke and other engineer would not go up on roof to fix so he fixed another one to side of house!

steveon

You say you have tried to do a software update, another method that sometimes can work but will delete any previous recordings

To do a full system reset unplug your box from mains (but wait for the hard drive to power down, normally about 2 to 3 minutes after switching into standby basically all whirring should stop). Then wait about another 2 minutes with the box unplugged. Then hold down the two buttons either side of the select button on the front of the box, DONT USE THE REMOTE CONTROL FOR THIS, and then with the buttons held plug up the power and wait, the round indicator ring will flash and then you must press select on the front of the box..

If that doesnt work then there are

A few options available to you are,

1. Singing up as another name which you previously mentioned, which is classed as fraud and can be found out by sky...You would have to give a months notice to cancel existing account.

2. Try and get sky plus box repaired, usually when they dont boot up its either the power supply or hard-drive problems....9 times out of ten hard drive....depending on the version of your box depends on what size drive you can put into it.

3. Buy a second hand box on ebay or other site.

4. Upgrade to Sky HD, box and install will cost you €99...however your subscription would go up by €14.75 a month...you could cancell the HD after a yr and still avail of the recording options and have more recording space.

5. Ring and complain treaten cancelling you might be lucky..and get a free or cheaper service call

6. Do as above and signup for NTL, remember thought less channel choice and in my opinion despite what they say they are not better value for money.

Best of luck with it.....

fifib

thanks for your reply steveon

i cannt delete any recordings cos the box wont even power up. i tried that method of rebooting while holding down the 2 buttons opposite the select button but nothing happened there

im wondering also if i cancel sky altogehter wills ome channels still come through on the sky digibox thats working? least if they have some sort of tv while they decide what option to take in the meantime!

fifib

well i rang sky and i must say im stuck for words!
i thought id be on hold for agessss but no...got straight through to this really nice guy..told me they were probably so quiet cos the cricket is on!

so turns out the engineer we had out in april to fix our sky dish also put us through for a sky box replacement...my dad mentioned this yesterday as he had to sign the PDA thingy and thought he'd seen a sky box on the list...sneaky!! anyways theres a 90 day guarantee on it which runs out this friday...how poxy! so we have an engineer calling friday to fix/replace!!

dlambirl

So you's were meant to get a new sky+ box and didnt - sneaky!!

So are you's getting it replaced under the warranty??