View Full Version : Sky+ box gone haywire............ Gromit!
DarrenSV650S
09-02-09, 10:43 PM
I think my dodgy sky+ box has gone mental. I'm watching a program that I have recorded. It gets to the ads so I press fast forward a few times to get it to 16x then it's suddenly back on the program so I think "wow that was a short ad break" so press play. But it has jumped back to the previous set of adverts from 15mins ago and I'm watching the same bit of tv again:confused:
That probably makes no sense but hopefully someone will know what I'm on about. It's done it a few times.
Either it's the sky+ box or I'm time travelling
I think my dodgy sky+ box has gone mental. I'm watching a program that I have recorded. It gets to the ads so I press fast forward a few times to get it to 16x then it's suddenly back on the program so I think "wow that was a short ad break" so press play. But it has jumped back to the previous set of adverts from 15mins ago and I'm watching the same bit of tv again:confused:
That probably makes no sense but hopefully someone will know what I'm on about. It's done it a few times.
Either it's the sky+ box or I'm time travelling
It's the box. They're a bit dodgy.
If you want to try really dodgy, get Sky HD, then you'll have all kinds of fun. I've had two boxes and they're both sh!te.
DarrenSV650S
09-02-09, 10:50 PM
Yeh mine is painfully slow and every now and then it just freezes for no reason.
Usually at the important part of the program. And obviously you can't rewind it to see the bit you missed!
Either it's the sky+ box or I'm time travelling
You watching Lost?
davepreston
09-02-09, 10:57 PM
mine does it all the time
see if you notice this, watch something recorded when the adverts finish and your program restarts you see a quick freeze or jump if you wait till after this before hitting play ( it happens at the same point every time) it wont skip back
DarrenSV650S
09-02-09, 11:02 PM
It's just done it again!! I was fast-forwarding the ads at about 45mins, pressed play and I'm back to 23 mins. grrrr
The Guru
09-02-09, 11:09 PM
You need to go into the services section, press 4 then 0 then 1 then select and then 7. it will sort out the planner/scheduler thing.
Mine does it every now and again and you have to do this to sort it out again.
DarrenSV650S
09-02-09, 11:13 PM
Ok just done that. It says "Housekeeping" pmsl
It gets rebooted often enough anyway. I usually pull it's plug when the hard disc randomly fires up at midnight when I'm trying to sleep! Must be the anytime tv or something
My neighbour went through 8 Sky+ boxes, all of them developed faults. They upgraded to HD and had no problems. I have had a few too. Still have Sky+ but can only watch the programs as all of the other functionality such as setting reminders, recording etc... has stopped working again :rolleyes:. I gave up calling Sky out in the end. I am thinking of upgrading to HD soon.
DarrenSV650S
09-02-09, 11:14 PM
My neighbour went through 8 Sky+ boxes, all of them developed faults. They upgraded to HD and had no problems. I have had a few too. Still have Sky+ but can only watch the programs as all of the other functionality such as setting reminders, recording etc... has stopped working again :rolleyes:. I gave up calling Sky out in the end. I am thinking of upgrading to HD soon.
Maybe it's a trick to get us to buy HD boxes. Fight the power!
shifter
09-02-09, 11:15 PM
I work for an av company and the problems we have with sky boxes you would not believe! I'd almost go as far as to say 1 in 5 is a dudd.
A lot of the time they just freeze, then we have to send an engineer out just to switch them off and back on again! Ours are generaly hidden away in a rack somewhere and controled remotly, so that can be a major pain.
Maybe it's a trick to get us to buy HD boxes. Fight the power!
Yes maybe :). All the channels are there and working so I am not so bothered.
Oh just hit it with a hammer... a big one... alot...
... then get Virgin Media = no probs. ;)
maviczap
10-02-09, 09:17 AM
Sky+HD boxes on offer at £49 at the mo
DarrenSV650S
10-02-09, 04:25 PM
Yeh but isn't sky+HD more per month?
maviczap
10-02-09, 04:52 PM
Yes it is. But the first 6 months is half price too, it's not a bad deal when the boxes were nearly £200 last year i think
DarrenSV650S
10-02-09, 04:57 PM
Also, I'd have to buy a HD tv :lol:
I'm on my second Sky+ box too. Same as Foxy, I lost all the extra + functions and it just acted as a normal Sky box. I was given a +box by a friend who had upgraded to HD. :cool:
maviczap
10-02-09, 06:17 PM
Also, I'd have to buy a HD tv :lol:
Me too, but I bought a HD dvd/hd last year, so I'm not getting the full benefit of this.
Some good deals at Ebuyer on HD TV's. :)
May sound silly but do you have a cordless phone, and is the base unit anywhere near the sky+ box?
I had a similar problem, which turned into not being able to record or watch anything recorded or paused.
Sky dude came out, replaced the box, same problem. Turned off the cordless phone base ( sat about half a meter away) and no more problems...
DarrenSV650S
11-02-09, 10:49 PM
Got a cordless phone but not in this room or anywhere near it. How would that affect it?
Not sure how it would affect it, just seemed to solve the problem for me!
Wild Bill
12-02-09, 03:47 PM
All of you with SKY+ boxes, are you paying about £90 per year maintenance charge? I`ve had mine for nearly a year now and I`m being bombarded with phone calls and letters to sign up. Mine`s been ok so I`m reluctant to join! If it packs up I think I`ll go back to virgin. It seems pricey,it`s £97 in yesterdays letter.
kwak zzr
12-02-09, 05:03 PM
mines been no problem since its install.
All of you with SKY+ boxes, are you paying about £90 per year maintenance charge?
I've never paid a maintenance fee on my Sky+ box and have had no trouble with it in the four years I've had it.
Grant66
12-02-09, 05:27 PM
have you tried reloading the firmware?
Power off at mains
Hold down back up buttom on front of box
Power back on at mains
When download message appears on screen, let go of back up button.
they have maintenance contracts? they have never tried to sell me one :-0 they did one try to get me to pay for a call out to fix the LNB, so I asked to be put through to cancellations "may as well pay Virgin the £50 and get new equipment that doesn't stop working cause it raining" amazingly the callout becomes free.
Ok just done that. It says "Housekeeping" pmsl
It gets rebooted often enough anyway. I usually pull it's plug when the hard disc randomly fires up at midnight when I'm trying to sleep! Must be the anytime tv or something
If that's not causing your problems it's certainly making them worse. If you must turn the box off so you can sleep, do that before the hard disk fires up.
The hard disk fires up at night to do housekeeping. That's something that the Sky+ box has to do regularly to ensure the disk works OK (check disk & de-fragmentation mostly).
If you interrupt that process, at best you'll disturb housekeeping & not allow the disk to self heal. At worst the needle point sensors on the inside of the discs will contact the platters where they shouldn't - and this can cause the platters to rip, rendering your Sky+ hard disk useless.
All of you with SKY+ boxes, are you paying about £90 per year maintenance charge? I`ve had mine for nearly a year now and I`m being bombarded with phone calls and letters to sign up. Mine`s been ok so I`m reluctant to join! If it packs up I think I`ll go back to virgin. It seems pricey,it`s £97 in yesterdays letter.
Sky do that in general when your contract is about to "end." After the first year the box legally becomes your property. At that point, if you want Sky to come out & fix it, £97 will sound like the cheap option!
DarrenSV650S
12-02-09, 05:43 PM
If that's not causing your problems it's certainly making them worse. If you must turn the box off so you can sleep, do that before the hard disk fires up.
The hard disk fires up at night to do housekeeping. That's something that the Sky+ box has to do regularly to ensure the disk works OK (check disk & de-fragmentation mostly).
If you interrupt that process, at best you'll disturb housekeeping & not allow the disk to self heal. At worst the needle point sensors on the inside of the discs will contact the platters where they shouldn't - and this can cause the platters to rip, rendering your Sky+ hard disk useless.
Ahh ok cheers for that.
Sky do that in general when your contract is about to "end." After the first year the box legally becomes your property. At that point, if you want Sky to come out & fix it, £97 will sound like the cheap option!
It's not Sky that do it, it's a third party. And if you do have a problem, Sky will fix it for a flat £60 (that included two callouts, new box, new dish and new cabling - essentially a brand new system).
It's not Sky that do it, it's a third party.
In a way, I see what you mean.
The letters we got were from multiple different companies offering essentially a warranty service.
These letters started 3 months before the end of the year long contract.
So a snotty letter later about Data Protection Act, and they apologised & the letters stopped coming. :)
Wild Bill
13-02-09, 01:01 PM
Same with me Baph.I think I`ll wait till it goes wrong and see what happens when I contact Sky.
vBulletin® , Copyright ©2000-2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.