No signal being received

angelface

Can anyone help? Yesterday our sky disapeared and the message "No satalite signal being received" appeared on the screen. We did all the usual switching off and disconnecting and finally rang sky who could only recommend sending out an engineer at the cost of £55 does anyone know what may be the problem?

DMC

Hi there, We'll just need a few more facts in relation to this..

Is it on some channels or all of them?
Does the satellite co-ax cable look intact and attached to the box?
What make of Digibox do you have (also specify the colour of the box)
How long do you have Sky (with the callout charge, I guess its more than a year)
Has it been windy recently in your area?

angelface

Hi

It's on all channels, it comes stright up on screen, you can't try change channel, just the message on screen.
Cable looks ok, disconnected everything except the sky and tv, checked the co-ax at the tv and dish end and no breaks in between.
Digibox is the black Grundig model.
We've been with Sky about two and a half years.
It has been windy but we've had worse, the dish seems secure.

Thanks

egal

I am getting exactly the same on my Pace box since last Monday.

Signal strength shows about half way.
Signal quality: nothing.
Lock indicator: "not locked".
Network ID: "0000".
Transport stream: "0000".

I have called out the installer. When he eventually (Christmas period) comes I'll post back here again.

egal

I forgot to say that my box is about the same age as yours.

When my brother's box was the same age as yours and mine are now he had to get a new LNB.

I am beginning to fear the worst...

Lennoxschips

The you should hope it's the LNB. They're fairly cheap in comparison to the box.

Try your box at someone elses house who also has sky. If it works there, then it's probably the LNB or the cable or your dish is not aligned. As long as the box is fine, you're laughing.

egal

So, how much is an LNB, then? If I remember correctly, my brother had to pay about £60. I don't regard that as cheap, especially if they only last about 30 months.

It would be really interesting to know what percentage of people had to replace their LNB at age 2 to 3 years.

egal

And when I think of it, how long would you expect your television set to last? Why should a satellite receiver or a dish last a lesser period? Consider myself lucky if it's not the box! C'mon.

lawhec

"Just" in case someone has been fiddling about, make sure the default transponder setting are correct.

To check this, press Services, 4, 0, 1, select and choose Default transponder. When in there make sure these values are correct...

Frequency - 11.778
Polarity - V
Symbol - 27.5
FEC - 2/3

If not, change these values to the above and save them, and check to see if the channel reappear.

I remember reading here that Pace Digiboxes don't have a reliable record with their tuners. Nevertheless we're nearly approaching three years in this house with a Pace Digibox with no problems at all.

£60 for an LNB, unless this included a hefty installiation charge for something which takes only a few minutes to set up, is far too expensive. A special LNB is needed for Sky Minidishes because of it's construction. £30 or under is usually the going price for these.

The fact that the signal strength indicator is about halfway is near meaningless as a figure of around 40-50% can be achieved from background radiation or even just standing in front of the LNB! The signal quality bar is much more important.

As recommended above, check the digibox on another dish. If it works, then your problem is "external", either the LNB, cable or misaligned dish. If it doesn't then unless the testing dish is also faulty, then it's something to do with the dodgybox.

One reason why TV's seem to last longer than Satellite receivers is that most people keep their TV in an open space where heat from the TV can freely escape. However many people keep their digiboxes in enclosed spaces which build up with heat from the digibox itself. Excessive heat can cause premature component failure. It took almost six years for our old Grundig analogue satellite system to be sent to the scrapheap thanks to a power supply failure.

Lennoxschips

I have a standard "non-sky" dish, and the LNB was 27 Euros. I replaced it myself.

A box is much more expensive to replace. (which is why I said "cheap in comparison") They're 400 Euros new and about 160 Euros second hand. Plus you have to ring up to get your card assigned to the new box.

So check first that your box is working by trying it at someone elses house, because you don't want to be paying betweem 160 and 400 Euros to get it replaced.

It might be something as elementary as your dish being out of alignment. I installed my dish down low on the garden shed wall so I could get to it easily to make adjustments.

angelface

After 24 hours with nothing happening we were about to ring sky to arrange an engineer to call when it just came back on! We have had no problems since, we had checked and rechecked all the connections so we know it was'nt that i suppose it was just one of those things!!! Fingers crossed it wont happen again.

egal

I'm glad you've got your Sky back - mine is still out, I'm afraid.
The installer just phoned to say he would be here in the morning (Monday).
After reading what was said above, I'm almost hoping now that it is the LNB that's at fault and not the box...

egal

Bad news, I'm afraid. The installer has just left with the box under his arm. He doesn't repair them himself, so it has to be sent off; estimated cost £70. AND, since New Year is coming up, it will probably be at least two weeks before I have it back.

During the course of our short conversation - he was here only a matter of minutes - he did say that you can expect the box to start causing problems after two years. However, he did also say that Panasonic and Sony boxes were "100%".

Saruman

I take it he did a signal test on the dish to make sure you are indeed physically locked on?

Mthor5

watchin the match this lunchtime on SP2 ,when i got the message
"no satellite signal is being received".exact same symptons as
angelface/egal.i swapped the digibox with my brothers downstairs and it didnt work there,and when i tried his on mine
it worked fine .so i guess its my digibox thats banjaxed?
how much/where to get it repaired (only sky?),is it really 400 for a new digibox :eek:
by the way its a pace,model1.2.10,(black), just over 2 years old so i take it wont still be under any warrenty?

shabbyroad

reading all these posts about boxes being likely to fail within 2-3 years makes me wonder if anyone has contacted the Dept. of Consumer Affairs about this ?
I'm no legal expert (as anyone who reads my posts will agree !) but my understanding of the legislation around sale of goods is that they should be fit for the purpose they were sold. Just because a warranty expires after one year should not mean that the retailer is not under any obligation to repair or replace if the goods fail in what is an unreasonable amount of time.

I enquired about a mobile phone failure couple of years ago and was told by this dept. that just because the warranty had expired it was not unreasonable for me to expect the phone to function for 18 months or more. Fortunately the retailer agreed and fixed it without too much argument.

...worth a try....might even set a precedent.....

Tony

I agree the failure rate especially on Pace boxes is too high by far

byte

Originally posted by Tony
I agree the failure rate especially on Pace boxes is too high by far

I agree. The tuners are their biggest problem 9 times out of 10. Youd think they'd sort out this issue. We've been doing Panasonics for quite some time and no issues as yet! So far, they seem a lot more reliable (though Sky's new software update hasn't helped any at all)!

Tony

Agreed panasonics seem more reliable by far, I dont think I've had a single problem with them so far.

Tony

egal

I was just wondering. Does anyone know of any evidence to suggest that a box might last longer if it is switched off at the mains at night rather than being left on standby?

Tony

I would have thought the opposite were true

Originally posted by egal
I was just wondering. Does anyone know of any evidence to suggest that a box might last longer if it is switched off at the mains at night rather than being left on standby?