Box Problem?

armchairninja

Hi,

I'm having a problem with the Sky Box at home, we have sky multi-room (Sky+ in Kitchen, and Normal Sky in sitting room), the problem is with the one in the sitting room.
Its the first generation Pace box, or possibly second, i think, and basically, its starting to give problems, the signal is coming in alright (according to the signal test atleast), but the picture itself is freezing, jumping, pausing etc., its frequently "Searching for Listings", however, while this is happening, the Sky+ box in the Kitchen is working away, not a bother on it.
My question is, is it to do with the age of the box, or is it another problem, even if it is getting signal etc., and the other box is fine.
Sometimes, if I turn the box off and back on, it goes back to normal, but only for a few min, and then it goes again, and its starting to get more and more frequent.

Also, in times of heavy rain, wind, fog etc., it does this also, as does the one in the Kitchen, just not as much, the dish is fitted on the chimney (its a bungalow) and I think that this may be an exposure problem?, because where we had the dish in our old house was fine, except in the most extreme weather, which was on the front wall of a 2 storey house.

Any help would be most appreciated, not particularly in the mood for ringing sky unless I have some info to talk to them with, otherwise I'll be getting the same "unplug, leave 60sec...etc.,etc.".

cheers

montgolfiere

you could have 2 seperate problems. it sounds like the Pace box may be developing a fault AND your dish may be slightly mis-aligned... what type/size dish are you using?
the Skyman

armchairninja

Yea, I was beginning to think that the Pace box is developing a problem alright, its starting to get very slow etc., its just puzzling that the signal strength and quality still show up at about 50% which is normally sufficient.

The dish is just the standard Mini Dish as far as I know, I'm not sure who my parents got to install it when we moved house, I was in college at the time, but I think it may have been "a friend of a friend who used to work for sky" or something similar, so I'm doubting that they used a signal tester etc., instead just pointing it in the general direction and hoping for the best.

I was reading somewere recently that there is a larger Sky dish, that was developed for Northern England & Scotland where the weather gets very severe, is it possible that this is the sort of thing that I need?

montgolfiere

a sky zone 2 dish is 60 cm x 75 cms and is used for the 'fringes' of the Uk and ideal for Eire. this might be better for you.
i use them here in the south of france and usually get a 'signal quality' reading of 80% (on the default transponder) on the inbuilt meter.
the Skyman