Freeview box gone bang....

DON79

Hi, asking this on behalf of my dad. His freeview box has gone bang this morning and since he is not so good with technology, he didn't have a clue what to do. I advised him best just to get another one which is what he is going to do.

The question I have is - every night he switches everything off at the mains switches! Great for power saving definitely but will this have a bad effect on a freeview box - i.e. cause it to go bang? It means he has to retune the box every morning.

I am concerned that if he gets a new box and continues with switching it off at the mains that this would happen again?

Any advice appreciated please. Thank you!

totalsolutions

Replace the STB

Turn it off
or
leave it on
Its up to you.

Aiadi

I read something in the newspaper about some problem affecting a lot of households following some thugs stealing copper elements from electrical safety equipment leading to some appliances blowing up and costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in damages.

DON79

thank you, yes I know its a personal choice whether to turn it on or off or not - that was not my question. also I had already said I had advised him to replace the stb...??

It was whether turning it off every night and then back on again every morning would eventually cause some damage to the box or not?

Aiadi, thanks for that info, yes I did read that, my dad is in Scotland so I don't think he has had that problem near him.

kwikbreaks

It's a bit of an old chestnut. The idea is that the constant thermal expansion followed by contraction may cause a badly made solder joint to fail. Another idea is that when first powered on there is a short voltage surge which if constantly repeated could cause components to fail. This may (or may not) be true but what is certainly true is that a Freeview box on standby will use a couple of watts maximum so costing £1 - £2 a year and you need to factor that against the annoyance of having no full program guide. It shouldn't be necessary to retune it though.

Some older people worry about thunderstorms damaging TVs (which they can) - does he disconnect the aerial too?

DON79

Thanks Kwikbreaks, I will pass that information onto him and let him decide what to do with the new one! I will also tell him that it doesn't really save that much in energy either over the course of a year.

lol! when we are there visiting him, we are there about a week at a time and we find it annoying re the TV guide as it never worked the way it should on the old box he had. You have to retune it in order to get the guide to load and work. Maybe this new box will be better, not sure if he disconnects the aerial too.

thanks

fiddiwebb

DON79 wrote: »

Hi, asking this on behalf of my dad. His freeview box has gone bang this morning and since he is not so good with technology, he didn't have a clue what to do. I advised him best just to get another one which is what he is going to do.

The question I have is - every night he switches everything off at the mains switches! Great for power saving definitely but will this have a bad effect on a freeview box - i.e. cause it to go bang? It means he has to retune the box every morning.

I am concerned that if he gets a new box and continues with switching it off at the mains that this would happen again?

Any advice appreciated please. Thank you!

Turning the freeview box off/on should not cause it to fail unless it was a faulty box also if it is a newish box then it should not need to be retuned everytime it was turned off ( I have an 8 year old freeview box that gets turned off at bedtime and it does not need to be retuned when turned back on)

What make & model is it?
How old?
Was it new or seconhand/refurbished?
How is it connected to the mains?

kwikbreaks

> not sure if he disconnects the aerial too.

Best not to mention this. If he does then the guide probably won't update even with it plugged in - I'm pretty sure it downloads in the early hours.

DON79

fiddiwebb wrote: »

Turning the freeview box off/on should not cause it to fail unless it was a faulty box also if it is a newish box then it should not need to be retuned everytime it was turned off ( I have an 8 year old freeview box that gets turned off at bedtime and it does not need to be retuned when turned back on)

What make & model is it? - don't know, sorry
How old? - only a couple of years
Was it new or seconhand/refurbished? - new
How is it connected to the mains? - plugged in to a socket

He just pulls the plug every night from the wall socket. doesn't leave it on standby.

alanrowell

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Best not to mention this. If he does then the guide probably won't update even with it plugged in - I'm pretty sure it downloads in the early hours.

Given he unplugs the box anyway it doesn't make much difference

JasX

if he insists on turning everything off at the mains perhaps he could/should invest in a decent surge protector?