sky + keeps freezing

shaun40400

hi
my sky box keeps freezing for about 5/6 secs
then continues,,,,which is a major pain...seems to be doing it on different channels :rolleyes:

any ideas how to rectify

thanks
s

captainprincess

Mine did this, I'm sure you have, but have you turned off for a few mins and then turned back on! Mine got resolved by phoning Sky

PsiDOC

When you say freezes does the picture go blocky as well?
Also does it do it when you have a big gust of wind?
If it does I think the great british winter weather may have moved your dish a bit.

Psi

shaun40400

captainprincess wrote: »

Mine did this, I'm sure you have, but have you turned off for a few mins and then turned back on! Mine got resolved by phoning Sky

recording at the min waiting for adverts

PsiDOC wrote: »

When you say freezes does the picture go blocky as well? no
Also does it do it when you have a big gust of wind? no
If it does I think the great british winter weather may have moved your dish a bit.
not in GB,,not had the storms here

Psi

spike7451

All the programmes pass thru the HDrive before you view them,try deleteing some programmes if it's quite full of recordings to free up some disc space.
However,this could be one of the early symptoms of a PSU (Power Supply Unit) failure.

deanos

I would reload the software, you wont loose any recordings, this solves many problems

Turn off the box at the mains, hold down the backup button on the box, turn the box back on while still holding down the back up button, after about 20 seconds a message appears on screen, and it will download the software and reboot the box

spike7451

deanos wrote: »

I would reload the software, you wont loose any recordings, this solves many problems

Turn off the box at the mains, hold down the backup button on the box, turn the box back on while still holding down the back up button, after about 20 seconds a message appears on screen, and it will download the software and reboot the box

Wont be a permanent solution if it's a hardware/circuitry problem.PSU failures are quite common,especially if it's a Thompson box.That's why it's vital to leave enough air space around the box.
Spike (ex-Sky engineer)

deanos

Bit drastic changing capacitors when a simple software reset may cure the problem, best to do the cheapest thing first !

yorkygal

Weve been having the same problems for a good while now - except our picture freezes 9 or 10 secs everytime. It doesnt do it on Sky News though. Our neighbour 'updated' the software but its no better, also the Text facility doesnt/wont work half the time. OH spoke to someone who works for Sky and he said it sounds like the box is faulty and said we should ring and get it replaced/checked by an engineer free of charge or threaten to cancel contract. Id go down the cancellation route but knowing my luck theyll cancel it and we use Sky a lot and would miss it.

If I threatened to leave them will they just accept it or try and sort something out???

ellanvannin_2

yorkygal wrote: »

Weve been having the same problems for a good while now - except our picture freezes 9 or 10 secs everytime. It doesnt do it on Sky News though. Our neighbour 'updated' the software but its no better, also the Text facility doesnt/wont work half the time. OH spoke to someone who works for Sky and he said it sounds like the box is faulty and said we should ring and get it replaced/checked by an engineer free of charge or threaten to cancel contract. Id go down the cancellation route but knowing my luck theyll cancel it and we use Sky a lot and would miss it.

If I threatened to leave them will they just accept it or try and sort something out???

We've had nothing but problems with our box since summer (just before it was 12 months old).

When my bank took the increased payment out in summer I was annoyed 'cos I hadn't been told by Sky it was going up. I rang to see if I could reduce my monthly payment but they'd only knock off a package or two at £1 a time.

I got really annoyed a couple of weeks ago after a spate of the box doing all sorts of odd things, especially when they wanted £65 to send an engineer out. So I told them I was going to cancel altogether and they put me through to a different department who tried to keep my custom by offering a half-price engineer visit. I said "no way, I might as well put the money towards buying someone else's +box that would probably be more reliable" (Freeview perhaps). In the end they reduce my payment 25% for 6 months to keep me, to £15.88 per month. I told them that would only postpone my leaving them, giving me 6 months to price their competitors' boxes and services. However this further threat didn't get the price down any further or for any longer than the 6 months.

I rang the following day to see if I could reduce the payment further by removing a couple of the packages at £1 per month but they said "No" because I had been put on a 6 month contract the day before when I agreed the 25% discount. Of course, the guy I agreed with the day before hadn't mentioned that!! I had in effect renewed my contract with them for 6 months, so presumably couldn't have cancelled before that time was up even if I later wanted to.

Be careful then if you agree to anything and be sure you've got all you want on that one phone call. Best to ring when you're in an assertive but polite mood, if you can manage that at the same time (not easy!).

Good luck, let me know how you get on.

ellanvannin_2

shaun40400 wrote: »

hi
my sky box keeps freezing for about 5/6 secs
then continues,,,,which is a major pain...seems to be doing it on different channels :rolleyes:

any ideas how to rectify

thanks
s

I can't help you to rectify your problem, but I would guess that a lot of the boxes have this sort of problem. Ours has developed a mind of its own since last summer and I don't think the high winds are helping any. I still use my video recorder quite a bit and I must say I don't have anywhere near as much problems with stuff taped on that as I do with the stuff on my Plus box!! How long will it be before they bring out "retro" video recorders I wonder?

The staff are always helpful when we ring up but we had to reformat the hard disk a couple of months ago and we lost 2 weeks of recordings that we'd made whilst on holiday. They offer to send an engineer out for £65 a pop, but we've told them we'd rather put it towards a new box with one of their competitors in the hope that would be more reliable (Freeview perhaps). Do you know there's a freephone number for Sky? 0800 0468857. So, at least you don't get annoyed paying a ridiculous amount for the help.