Sky box "FAILED"

[hairyben]

so the last half dozen recordings have failed, tried resetting, anything else to try before binning it? 4 year old sky+HD.

I understand sky are about as helpfull as a wet fart when their boxes kark it and as I have HD pack F1 legacy I'm probably better off just grabbing another one off ebay right? Any advice on whats best, I notice theres a wide price range in the 1tb boxes...

thanks

[fadeaway]

Hi,

Had similar issues with ours in the past. Always sorted out by doing a hard reset - ie turning off, pulling out power cable, waiting 1 minute before plugging back in.

The rebuild the planner, which is explained here:

http://help.sky.com/tv/problems-with-your-sky-tv/p...

That's always sorted any issues for us.

Would suggest clearing your deleted items as well, as that's mentioned on that page.
We seem to have issues if the box is low on space. Make sure you've got 20-30% free space - and ideally 50%. That should improve things as well

[ch427]

or try a full system reset but it will put it back to factory settings and wipe everything.

[LeoSayer]

I found Sky's on-line chat pretty helpful when my HD box had problems with freezing earlier this year.

He was very patient and stayed online for an hour or so while waiting for me to follow his instructions.

[Funk]

For the cost of P&P you're welcome to have mine if you'd like.

[JustinP1]

hairyben said:

so the last half dozen recordings have failed, tried resetting, anything else to try before binning it? 4 year old sky+HD.

I understand sky are about as helpfull as a wet fart when their boxes kark it and as I have HD pack F1 legacy I'm probably better off just grabbing another one off ebay right? Any advice on whats best, I notice theres a wide price range in the 1tb boxes...

thanks

This happened to me a few months ago.

By way of background, I've been a dual box customer for ten years, and had in the region of 8 boxes through failure. I've never paid a call out charge, or a new box.

If you ask to cancel as you don't want to pay for a new box, you'll be put to a retention team, who will instantly authorise a replacement recon box.

Last time I spoke with them, instead of that they actually offered me one of the new, top of the range boxes for £50 delivered.


Ring them, you may be surprised!

[Morningside]

fadeaway said:

Hi,...
Would suggest clearing your deleted items as well, as that's mentioned on that page.
We seem to have issues if the box is low on space. Make sure you've got 20-30% free space - and ideally 50%. That should improve things as well

Go through and delete ALL the old recordings. And reboot. Thats what fixed it for me.

[Oakey]

It'll be the cheap capacitors in the PSU.

[Patch1875]

Get a new one from sky. They will try to charge you but ask to get put through to cancellations will get you one foc.

[Campo]

Oakey said:

It'll be the cheap capacitors in the PSU.

Unlikely, they just don't power up when that happens.

[Pixelpeep]

try a planner rebuild - it won't delete saved items just carry out a de-frag of sorts.

Google how to access installer menu and then take it from there.

[Pixelpeep]

Rebuild your Planner

If restarting your Sky+ box hasn't resolved the problem, follow these steps to rebuild the Planner. Alternatively, you can also find instructions on how to do this in our Planner Rebuild YouTube video.

Please note: Rebuilding your Planner will not delete any of your previous recordings. However, it will interrupt any recordings currently in progress, so it's best to proceed when you’re not recording a programme.

Press services on your Sky remote.
Press the right arrow button to highlight Settings
Press select.
Press 0, then 1, followed by select.

You'll now see a new set of screens that are normally hidden from view, with the Setup screen selected.

Press the left/right arrow buttons to highlight Sky+ Rebuild.
Press select. You'll now see this message: "This will take a few minutes to complete. The rebuild will stop all recordings and reboot your Sky+HD".
Press select. The onscreen message "Housekeeping please wait" will appear and then disappear within two minutes.
The Planner rebuild will now go ahead, and may take up to two further minutes. Once complete, your Sky+ box will automatically switch itself off and then back on. You will then see the red standby light on your Sky+ box (newer boxes have an amber standby light).
Wait for at least two minutes after the red standby light has appeared.
Press sky on your remote control.

[kooky guy]

Mine recently started doing this. I would also find it randomly frozen with the record light on, requiring a hard reset.

Rebuilding the planner completely solved it. It's not destructive - I think it just does some disk housekeeping.

[Oakey]

Campo said:

Unlikely, they just don't power up when that happens.

Failed recordings and picture break up are the first signs the capacitors in the PSU are dying.

[Campo]

Thanks Oakey, I didn't know that failed recordings were a symptom.

I've seen quite a few of the Thomson boxes where the PSU board has burnt due to dodgy capacitors overheating. In most of these cases they took out the resistor next to them and the box wouldn't power up. Symptoms running up to this were normally box stuck in standby and like you say frozen pictures. The joys of people bringing their crap into work for me to fix

OP, is there plenty of ventilation around your box? Nothing on top of it?

Also, do you have the make and model number.

As suggested, go for a planner rebuild to start.

[TheExcession]

Campo said:

Thanks Oakey, I didn't know that failed recordings were a symptom.

I've seen quite a few of the Thomson boxes where the PSU board has burnt due to dodgy capacitors overheating. In most of these cases they took out the resistor next to them and the box wouldn't power up. Symptoms running up to this were normally box stuck in standby and like you say frozen pictures. The joys of people bringing their crap into work for me to fix

OP, is there plenty of ventilation around your box? Nothing on top of it?

Also, do you have the make and model number.

As suggested, go for a planner rebuild to start.

I'll just add that over the years I've seen a few boxes with all manner of issues before they finally gave up - replacing bloated capacitors in the PSU fixed all of them. How the f**k Sky get away with this is beyond me.

Campo said:

The joys of people bringing their crap into work for me to fix

Are you just the last port of call for help? You know, like a vet - my dog is dead can you please exorcise it and perform a resurrection?

(You ought to try cheap Chinses clone dreamboxs - the flash memory 'wears out', 'corrupts' - reflash them and you'll get another six months of trouble free operation )

Edited by TheExcession on Tuesday 22 July 22:21

[Oakey]

Yeah, cheap capacitors that would eventually blow have been a long known issue for years now. The worst part is that Sky replace your box and the chances are they'll give you a refurb that's inevitably going to suffer the same problem!

[kooky guy]

Can they be replaced DIY? Any articles on this anywhere?

The worst bit about getting Sky to replace the box is that everything already recorded is lost.

[TheExcession]

kooky guy said:

Can they be replaced DIY? Any articles on this anywhere?

The worst bit about getting Sky to replace the box is that everything already recorded is lost.

You can buy kits (on the internet) that contain all the capacitors for the PSU board.

If you've any experience with a soldering iron then it is easy. The hardest part is taking it to bits and getting it all back together again.

Alternatively take the board out look for any bulging capacitors and take a quick to Maplin or your local TV repair shop with a list.

I've seen the odd youtube vid on getting the board out and back in again, but they really are horribly boxes to work on.

[hairyben]

Thanks for all the help... 3rd restart seemed to fixit. For now...