No signal recieving on some channels

eor123

Hi all,

I have multi-room with the old boxes for Sky, one is Sky+ and the other a normal box. I moved the Sky+ box into the sitting room because I wanted to watch my recorded programmes in there last night, but it didnt work..

But, when I re-connected the boxes it says that no signal is being received, but it is being received for some channels.. I have been on to Sky, and I have connected it properly, have done system reboots and everything.

They say the dish needs to be fixed, but surely by moving the boxes the dish wouldn't be affected?

To get an engineer out I'm being charged €100... :eek:

Anybody have any ideas?

swoofer

now that is an intriguing query. you need to explain a bit more, to use sky + you need 2 feeds from the dish, and a sky subscription. when you moved the sky plus box did you have 2 cables in the sitting room?

is the sky box that was in sitting room working?

eor123

The Sky+ box is in the sunroom, with two wires, a black and white one, which was working up until yesterday when I moved it.
The normal sky box is in the sitting room, and was also working until yesterday.
I moved the sky+ box thinking I would be able to watch my recorded programmes in the sitting in front of the fire. but it said it needed signal so I connected the wire from the normal box into it. It still didn't work.

I put everything back the way I found it, and all wires reconnected, but then both boxes said they were not receiving a signal on alot of the channels but is receiving on others (receiving Sky 1, Channel 4, etc).

about 6 calls to sky and still no solution, they are saying it is the dish, but that just doesn't make sense..

I have subscription.

Extinction

If you connected the cables from the dish to the sky boxes while they were powered up you could have damaged the LNB on the dish.

eor123

Extinction wrote: »

If you connected the cables from the dish to the sky boxes while they were powered up you could have damaged the LNB on the dish.

is there anyway of fixing this, without the calling of an engineer, like can the LNB be purchased and fitted by an 'unqualified' person, ie - a handyman?

€100 for an engineer to call out when I am paying a monthly subscription is a bit steep...

muffler

eor123 wrote: »

is there anyway of fixing this, without the calling of an engineer, like can the LNB be purchased and fitted by an 'unqualified' person, ie - a handyman?

€100 for an engineer to call out when I am paying a monthly subscription is a bit steep...

You would need to get someone who knows a wee bit about these things but for me its a relatively straight forward job in changing LNB's. I would suggest ringing around a couple of local independent installers and see what they would charge. It may not necessarily be the LNB either.

Are you still in contract with Sky? If not then I would ring up and tell them you want to cancel. They normally get you sorted out free or maybe a token charge rather than loose you as a paying subscriber.

eor123

muffler wrote: »

You would need to get someone who knows a wee bit about these things but for me its a relatively straight forward job in changing LNB's. I would suggest ringing around a couple of local independent installers and see what they would charge. It may not necessarily be the LNB either.

Are you still in contract with Sky? If not then I would ring up and tell them you want to cancel. They normally get you sorted out free or maybe a token charge rather than loose you as a paying subscriber.

I don't want to threaten to cancel in case they cancel it, because we started our subscription in 2008 I think, and the price was €25/month then, but has since gone up to €33/month, but we stay pay the 25 as they said they couldnt put up our price since we never requested an upgrade, they had to give it because they were overhauling their system. So if they cancel and I re-subscribe I pay more for the same service! Its just all a mess!

swoofer

when you say you done system reboots what did you actually do? and were the boxes actually powered on when you disconnected and re-connected the lnb's? I may have a solution for you but need a bit more information.

And can you access the dish yourself?

eor123

GBCULLEN wrote: »

when you say you done system reboots what did you actually do? and were the boxes actually powered on when you disconnected and re-connected the lnb's? I may have a solution for you but need a bit more information.

And can you access the dish yourself?

for the reboots, (being talked through with sky staff) I turned off system, pressed back up button, and turned it back on again, that was for the normal box, with the plus box I did an update or something, I dont really know what I did, I was just told to press buttons!
And, I have no idea if the boxes were connected when I disconnected, and reconnected the wires, as I was not really paying much attention because I didnt realise that it was potentially harmful, I would say they were turned on, as I dont see why I would have turned them off, at the time...

The dish is on the chimney, I have a ladder (and rope)! :P

swoofer

ok I want you to do the following exactly as instructed dont presume anything.

1. turn bothe boxes OFF using the remotes.

2. unplug both boxes from the wall sockets or pull the 2 pin lead out of each box. This means box is completely powered off.

3. While boxes are powered off you have to examine the lnb connections on each box.

4. on box with one connection unscrew lnb f connector, then look inside the f connector bit and you should see a wire coloured gold but it has to be long enough to fit inside the little hole on the lnb socket on the sky box. Also there is a wire braid that earths the cable but none of these wires can touch the inner core cable, so look closely and see if any little wires are touchinh the cable in the f connector.

5. If the inner core cable is two short just twist the f connector clockwise and push at same time, cable should then protude enough.

6. Now you need to re-connect cable to single box, be careful and make sure the inner cable goes into the little hole on box socket, then screw it on tightly.

come back when you have done that bit

swoofer

also can you confirm that you only have 3 cables coming from the sky dish, its important

Peter Rhea

If the f-connectors on the cables are poorly fitting (loose) twist-on types, you could have undid them from the cables while doing up the nut to connect them to the receiver, resulting in the centre conductor making poor contact in the connection.

eor123

just before i was about to check for all that stuff I just turned on the system to see what it was saying, and it is working fully again. I dont know what the story is at all, I just hope it doesnt happen again!

I feel like I just went to the doctor with something wrong with me, and as I walk in the door i am magically cured! but, thanks for your help anyway, might be needed in the future, but hopefully not!

swoofer

great stuff, turning off the box before undoing any cables is the best way to enusre no mishaps.

OneIdea

Sounds more like the power supply's are failing.... would it be the case that you leave your boxes plugged in all the time?

eor123

OneIdea wrote: »

Sounds more like the power supply's are failing.... would it be the case that you leave your boxes plugged in all the time?

Yeah, they are always plugged in, but if not in use are on stand by, well, most of the time!

OneIdea

eor123 wrote: »

Yeah, they are always plugged in, but if not in use are on stand by, well, most of the time!

So with that in-mind, I'm of the opinion that when you unplugged your box to move it to another room, the power supply within had ample time to cool down and release its capacitors of any charge they had.

The capacitors are the problem and a tell-tail sign is they start to bulge upwards to form a cone-head, this is when they fail to hold a charge and its only through time and heat they may continue to work but not for long.

There are replacement power supply kits or upgrades available to buy online, but having said that, if you take shipping in to account... you would be better of buy a second-hand box online for the same price. €30 try adverts.ie

Alternatively you could replace the faulty capacitors which altogether shouldn't cost more then €5, however the only online shop I know of that sells capacitors individually is ie.farnell.com but they have a minimum order of €20 so unless there's something else they sell that's of interest to you thats not much help.

Perhaps a local TV repair shop might sell you the parts.

Anyway all the above is not much use to you unless you have a soldering iron or know somebody that might do the 5-10min job.

To test your box again... unplug it this evening and leave it unplugged over night and try it again in the morning, specifically the channels that didn't work before.

eor123

OneIdea wrote: »

So with that in-mind, I'm of the opinion that when you unplugged your box to move it to another room, the power supply within had ample time to cool down and release its capacitors of any charge they had.

The capacitors are the problem and a tell-tail sign is they start to bulge upwards to form a cone-head, this is when they fail to hold a charge and its only through time and heat they may continue to work but not for long.

There are replacement power supply kits or upgrades available to buy online, but having said that, if you take shipping in to account... you would be better of buy a second-hand box online for the same price. €30 try adverts.ie

Alternatively you could replace the faulty capacitors which altogether shouldn't cost more then €5, however the only online shop I know of that sells capacitors individually is ie.farnell.com but they have a minimum order of €20 so unless there's something else they sell that's of interest to you thats not much help.

Perhaps a local TV repair shop might sell you the parts.

Anyway all the above is not much use to you unless you have a soldering iron or know somebody that might do the 5-10min job.

To test your box again... unplug it this evening and leave it unplugged over night and try it again in the morning, specifically the channels that didn't work before.

I think I will just leave the boxes alone, as they fixed themselves, and make a mental note to myself never to touch them again!
Thanks for your help, I may need it in the future, but hopefully not!