Satellite TV (SkY) Problems,..........and how to fix them.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Some of you may know that after I came off the coaches I worked for a Satellite TV repair company. As well as supplying Sky Digiboxes etc we also had our own engineers. We also used telephone procedures to get customers boxes working a lot more quickly than waiting for an engineer to call. Sky get very upset when we told cutomers these tricks as they would rather send an engineer out and charge them for the pleasure! Our customers didn't need to most of the time due to our advice. Anyway hope this works for you.

First make sure there is no snow on the dish as that will block the signal. Make sure the LNB is also clear and that the cables are connected tightly and covered, water can get into the joints as snow melts and it will run down the inside of the braiding causing all sorts of problems, (if the cable is too tight in it's course down to the box, water can actually get inside the box!).

Try in first instance, Back-Up. turn the box off at the wall. Hold back up button in on the box. Turn mains back on without letting go of back up and the red standby light will come on. Once u get 3 more lights on the box let go of back up and leave for 20 mins for it to go back on standby. Then use as normal

Try in second instance. LNB RESET

On the remote control press 0,1 then select, this should take you to the installer setup (0-0-1 for HD boxes).

Go into LNB setup and turn the LNB power supply off (third one down) and the 22khz command (one underneath) then save the new settings.

Turn the power off at the mains then back on, follow the first steps back into the LNB setup, both the ones you turned off should still be off, press the red button on the remote and both should come back on, then save the new settings and it will take you back to installer setup.

Go to new installation and press select twice to start scanning once its finished it should say ‘channel line up complete’ press the sky button on the remote to put you back on a picture.

Try in third instance. Planner rebuild. Doesn't delete recordings. Press Services on remote and make sure options is highlighted in top right of screen. Type 0, 0, 1 select into remote and will highlight setup in yellow. Press right on remote and highlight sky+planner rebuild. Press select until get message "housekeeping please wait". Once done box will go into standby. Wait 20 mins then use as normal

LAST RESORT HARD DRIVE RESET (Caution this procedure will erase any saved programmes.)

Turn box off at the mains.

Find the select button and the four directional buttons on the front of the box.

Press and hold the left and the right buttons (top of the box) in together and then making sure you don’t let go, put the power back on.

Keep the left and rights held until the round circular record and play light comes on (can take a few minutes).

Press the select button twice and the record and play light should start to spin anti-clockwise for a few seconds; it will then turn on to the red standby light.

Leave the box on standby for 20 mins before turning on.

If these fail to get things going then sadly you will need to call an engineer out. Hope this helps anyway.

[mutley 4,498]

Thanks Alan,

I used to have a Sky Digibox and had many problems that had to be dealt with by phone, after a while of making notes on how to reset several features I never bothered ringing them!

Dumped Sky a few years ago in favour and Freeview and FreeSat, must have saved 1000's in subscriptions!

[britfrog 180]

Sound advice I shall pass it on to my daughter in the UK.

many years ago when on holiday in Guernsey i saw my first satellite transmissions which included eurosport and that just blew me away being an ex bike racer/motorsport lover. So straight away bought all the gear and very soon was watching nothing but satellite tv so stopped paying for the beeb licence. A while later sky took over the eurosport transmissions in the uk so took out a small contract with them but still mostly watched ES. One day a year or two later my wife received a tap at the door from a man who immediately put his foot in the door to stop it closing and he announced he was from tv licencing and why didnt we have a tv licence?

Well being a true Ebenzer Scrooge i didnt see any point in paying for something we never watched and had disconnected the aerial cable and taken it away from the aerial on the roof so it was impossible to get terrestial tele. The man from the bureau was not satisfied and we duly received a summons . My wife went to court 3 times around xmas and each time the case was put off for another day on the last occasion my wife snapped at the judge no doubt he is chrsitmas shopping, dont bother calling me again. Well apparently the judge took exception to her remark and ordered the man from the bureau to be in court the following week, when the judge asked her why she didnt have a licence she simply answered that we didnt watch terrestial tele any more , the man from the bureau countered by saying the law had been changed recently so that now any receiving device inc computers had to have a licence, my wife asked him how they had notified the public of this change of law, and he glibly responded it is on adverts on the beeb. My wife being a bit sharp immediately stood up and said have you not been listening to anything I have said? we dont watch and have no desire to watch the beeb, upon which the judge stopped the case declared my wife innocent and demanded the man from the bureau meet with the judge in his chambres. My wife not to be outdone went to the clerk of the court demanded and won costs as well. we never did pay for a licence for several years after that and never received another knock on the door, but then we moved to France, and here the licence fee is in you house rates, so you cant escape paying for it.

[mutley 4,498]

Great story BF your wife is obviously "switched on"

Apparently you don't need a licence for catch-up TV like BBC iPlayer, or ITV player, to catch up on programmes after they have been shown on TV.

Sorry Al, off topic.

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

Great story BF your wife is obviously "switched on"

Apparently you don't need a licence for catch-up TV like BBC iPlayer, or ITV player, to catch up on programmes after they have been shown on TV.

Sorry Al, off topic.

I didnt know that about the catch-up clause Joe, Did you know that you can still get a Black and White licence which some people still use! Though how I have no idea since there are no more terrestrial signals in the UK.

[mutley 4,498]

Re the B&W, you just buy a cheap Freeview box and connect it using the the old aerial socket and you're in business!

[dodgy-alan 1,587]

One has to ask the question, Why would you want to? !

[rob16584 42]

Thanks for that Alan, will no doubt come in use at some point.

Whilst I love having Sky I detest having to pay them so much for the privilege, but when they have bought up all the rugby rights and most of the football I feel like I don't have an option. I sell it to Emma as it's money saved on me going down to the pub several times a week to watch the games. Although Sky+ is a pain in the **se when I have a look through the planner and see nothing but Corrie and Emmerale

[needles 1,013]

Here here Rob.

We also went over to the free, FreeSat. No subscription, but there are a lot of repeated programs on the channels you get.

Plus a load of God channels which I must say, being a non believer, is an absolute wast of channels.

I'm sure one channel for praying is enough.

Apologies to the believers out there, no offence is intended.

We will also save a small fortune in sub's to Sky. (Which I intend to spend on flight simming

[brett 2,316]

It sure does cost alot for cable nowadays. The problem is if you want to watch TV or get the Internet you have little choice on who you must deal with. They have us by the short hairs. I think all this stuff is owned by the same bigwigs because no matter how you try to get the best deals, it all works out to around the same price. They probably figure it out each year over a high priced dinner. "So how much should we whack them for this year George?" "As much as they can afford old man" giggle giggle snort. 100 channels and it's all mostly reruns with a decent show thrown in once in a while. Meanwhile all the different networks got there greedy hands out wanting more money for the same garbage they have been churning out year after year which keeps increasing the costs. You can't even buy a recorder on the market to tape/record shows. You have to use "their services". I guess those same bigwigs own all the electronic companies too!

Laugh or cry or vent in forums, that won't change a thing, is your only option. (Those bigwigs are too good!) I guess I'll just pay up and so I don't go

[Tim_A 997]

I also dumped Sky at the beginning of this year in favour of Freesat. They were just charging too much for too little of any interest (a couple of aviation shows on Discovery and season 10 of NCIS is all I'm missing. Oh, and season 3 of game of Thrones!)