problems with Sky?

starfish10

We are having problems with receiving some of the Sky channels (we pay the full package and for a number of years), this problem is intermittent, for example a good deal of the time we dont get ITV2 it breaks up. Yesterday we lost a lot of channels, BBC2, comedy channels and many more. My Husband phoned Sky, the operative tested everything and said that it was to do with polarizaton as all these channels are either vertical or horizontal (can't remember which now)and it could be a problem with the digibox, dish, cable and that he could send an engineer and it would cost about £50 call out. We told him we had another digibox in house belonged to deceased mother, we could try to rule out digibox,and rung off. We tried this box and everthing is exactly same, so I put old one back in and still in the same position. After being out for a couple of hours, I came in and tried Sky and everthing is back on Ok, so how can it be our equipment. A relative lives next door I phoned her while having the problem, she had no problems with those channels on Sky. What can we do?

starfish10

Am I in the right forum for the above post

Purdy_1

We had problems with our sky and called the helpline to be told it would cost us £65 for an engineer to call out to us. As it was when we looked at our wiring (looking something like spaghetti junction) it turned out to be a worn out connection on one of the leads. Hey presto ! Perfect sky again !

I am not saying this is your problem but check your wiring before you call out an engineer.

Pawlus

Every few days the picture starts to break up on some channels and after a few minutes the message "No satellite signal is being received" is displayed and then all channels but for BBC1, ITV1 and a few others cannot be received.

This is a recent problem after several years with sky. It works sometimes but not others so I am at a loss to resolve. I have tried sky who were very unhelpful and I would be interested in any comments - I am so frustrated I am thinking of closing my sky account and getting freeview.

penrhyn

Hello Starfish, it sounds as if its your LNB causing problems, assuming you have ruled out cabling.
So unless you feel competent to buy one and change it yourself then you will have to call Sky or an independent firm out.

carly

I take it you are out of contract? so ring Sky again, tell them you wish to cancel as their programmes are unwatchable with your equipment. they will offer to send an engineer for £65.. say no. stand your ground. they will put you through to cancellation dept who will back down and offer to send an engineer free of charge with a refurbished box. they do not wish to lose customers and will go to great lengths to keep you

starfish10

penrhyn wrote: »

Hello Starfish, it sounds as if its your LNB causing problems, assuming you have ruled out cabling.
So unless you feel competent to buy one and change it yourself then you will have to call Sky or an independent firm out.

Thanks for replies but what is an LNB?

will-in-estoril

It may not be your LNB.

What is the make of your digibox? A Grundig, by any chance?

Older digiboxes may experience a number of problems. Older Amstrads have tuner issues, but the Grundig's power supply unit inevitably fails.

When this happens you need to replace the PSU. However, before I recommend this, can you post the make and model number of the box. Can you also press the services button, then button 4, then button 5? Look at the numbers for the EPG software version, and post this too.

Don't mess round trying to do software upgrades at the minute.

outbidder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_converter

It's the bit in the middle of your dish.

If it was a PSU issue then surely there would be no lights on the box and it would be completely FUBAR'd?

will-in-estoril

outbidder wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_converter

It's the bit in the middle of your dish.

If it was a PSU issue then surely there would be no lights on the box and it would be completely FUBAR'd?

Not in the initial stages: missing channels are indicative of the PSU beginning to fail.

I agree that the problem may lie elsewhere, but ruling out the digibox is always the best place to start.

matphil

will-in-estoril wrote: »

It may not be your LNB.

What is the make of your digibox? A Grundig, by any chance?

Older digiboxes may experience a number of problems. Older Amstrads have tuner issues, but the Grundig's power supply unit inevitably fails.

When this happens you need to replace the PSU. However, before I recommend this, can you post the make and model number of the box. Can you also press the services button, then button 4, then button 5? Look at the numbers for the EPG software version, and post this too.

Don't mess round trying to do software upgrades at the minute.

HI.
I hope you don't mind me interupting but I constantly get this problem and my box is a grundig.
Grundig model no :- 2.81.
EPG software version :- 3.5.3.
Hope you can help.