Sky+ Help Please

boosas

Hi Fellow MSE'rs

I hope someone can help please! I have done a search on "Sky" but comes back with no results so sorry if this has been asked before.

We have Sky+ and our Sky box is the Pace 3100 (PVR2). Last night everything from our planner was deleted, all recordings, all series links, the works. A pop up box then came up and said there was a technical fault so I tried switching it off and back on, but unfortunately I have been unable to switch it back on since.

I called up Sky and spoke to someone from their technical department and we tried resetting the machine by unplugging the mains and pressing the backup button and plugging it back in to allow the update. I have done this numerous times today but I still can't get Sky to actually turn on. When the mains is plugged in the red light is on but when I try to switch it on nothing happens, I tried switching it on via the remote as well as the box. Sky then said I'll have to pay £65 to get a technician out to fix it. :mad: (My Sky+ box is under 2 years old!).

Now heres my dilemma...

For anyone that knows their stuff with Sky boxes, if the box refuses to turn on, is it more than a hard drive problem? Coz if it is just the hard drive, I'd rather pay £90 to upgrade the hard drive (250gb) myself and get a bigger hard drive than to pay Sky £65 to replace it with the standard 80gb.

I have read on other forums that people have opted for this route rather than pay Sky but they were still able to actually turn on their Sky box but just couldn't record any programmes.

I am scared that if I purchase the hard drive and do it myself and then find its more than just a hard drive problem and would have wasted £90 and probably end up spending another £65 to get a technician out!

So for anyone in the know, if the Sky box refuses to turn on is it more likely to be that the hard drive has gone? Or is it a case of the whole Sky box needs replacing?

Any advice or suggestions much appreciated. Thanks for reading this.

TIA

moneyuser

Difficult one this.

Yes it does sound like the hdd, but replacing it is a gamble because you can't be sure. What would be ideal is, if you could try another hdd in it first, don't suppose you or someone else has got one lying round? I would check digitalspy for the latest compatible hdd drives. You could also try putting the hdd in your PC to see if the hdd works.

I'm not sure about this but I think that I have read somewhere that you can use a sky+ box without a hdd, it would just work like a normal digibox with the sky+ features. So if you take the hdd out and see if it comes on then you know it is the hdd, worth a try.

I would normally suggest the "threaten cancellation" route with sky to get a free callout. If you did this though, I would suspect you would end up with a non pace box, which is probably a bad idea and may cause more trouble.

You could also buy a new Pace PVR3 from simplydigital for £139 or try ebay for a used one.

Sput2001

Don't know if it's just coincidence, but our Amstrad (yuk!) Sky+ box started messing around last night too.

It won't play back anything that's been recorded. I'll be on the phone to them shortly!

boosas

Thanks for the suggestion, taking the HDD is a good idea so we may try that if we can find the right tools to unscrew the Sky box! My OH has searched the whole house for a screwdriver that will unscrew it as it's not standard screws... flippin' Sky have to make it so difficult don't they?!

Thanks though for your suggestions, I will give it a go and let you know!

Any other advice or suggestions much appreciated!

Thanks again

boosas

Just a quick update, I made the call to Sky today to cancel my subscription, they asked why, I explained so he offered to send the technician out for free!! So I have save us £65! woohoo!

:j

Thanks for this suggestion moneyuser, I was quite nervous playing the cancel card but had nothing to lose and luckily it worked! I also specified like for like model or any other Pace model, they've noted it down but stated it cannot be guranteed and that its whatever the engineer so happens to have in their van so I pray they have a Pace model!

Thanks again, OH is well made up!

:money:

marleyboy

There has been a lot of problems with the Sky+ boxes, indeed MSE has discussed it previously. It has even been discussed on Watchdog, as paying £65 everytime a box crashes is quite frankly outragious, especially (not if), but WHEN it goes again.

real1314

boosas wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion, taking the HDD is a good idea so we may try that if we can find the right tools to unscrew the Sky box! My OH has searched the whole house for a screwdriver that will unscrew it as it's not standard screws... flippin' Sky have to make it so difficult don't they?!

Thanks though for your suggestions, I will give it a go and let you know!

Any other advice or suggestions much appreciated!

Thanks again

maplin do security bits for screwdrivers

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?C=AddonBasketFillers&T=GU60Q&criteria=GU60Q&DOY=26m11

and some others too

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&DOY=26m11&ModuleNo=34154&criteria=

and theres other kits.

moneyuser

Glad you got a free callout :j , the cancellation route normally works, they would rather keep you than lose you. Hope you get a Pace but as they hardly ever go wrong it is very rare to get one

Moneymaker

Frankly, I'd rather pay. The replacement box they'll give you will almost certainly be a "refurbished" old model (and probably not Pace) with only a 3 month warranty (read the fine print). The BSKYB3100 was the best and I wouldn't want to lose it.

For anyone in this situation with a little money to spare (!) I'd recommend getting the Pace model repaired.

There's a list of repairers here:
http://sam-radford.me.uk/repairers.htm