Sky + H.d Box Failure

[Surfer01]

But how many of those that have been changed have actually been faulty. In comparison to the digibox LNB is rare. Most times that they go faulty is because people have been fiddling, i.e. taking the connections off without powering down the unit and I have seen maintenance people do this. They can't be called engineers because they probably aren't qualified to do actual component repair.

[Acropolis]

There are many different types of engineer, just becuase my engineers dont do component level repair, does not mean they are not engineers. A structual engineer probably cant do component level repairs, but they are still engineers.

 

I would say of the ones we swap, most have genuinely gone faulty, rather than from people messing with them and causing them to fault, as the majority of the customer we deal with are of the older generation and not capable for messing with the equipment.

 

I would agree the box does go faulty many more times that the LNB but LNB's do fail. The most common cause is the poor quality connectors that most Sky installers use falling off or the dish moving. If we go to a job wiht the useless screw on F connectors we replace them with at least crimp connectors if not compression ones, which are much better and dont work loose or fall off.

[Surfer01]

Please don't misunderstand me but what qualifications have your "engineers" got that allows them to be known as "engineers" and not technicians? An engineer is basically a designer and a technician does repairs.

I can't see an "engineer" doing something as basic as changing LNBs or even repairing Sky digiboxes as that is work for a technician or a driver / apprentice with modest knowledge of how electroni things work.

[Acropolis]

Surfer, if you think that a driver/apprentice could go out doing service calls and actually manage to fix anything properly, then..........

 

Once the fault has been found the fix is normally simple, but finding the fault is the interesting part, where the skills come into play.

 

As for qualifications, city and guilds, CAI qualifications. They do slightly more than just Sky work, this is a very small part of it, VSAT, ANPR systems and large IRS roll outs are the main bulk of their work load.

[Ianko]

Thought I would chip in on signal failure with Sky HD Box.

I was happily watching Spurs lost 4-3 against Inter Milan last night on ITV HD. After the match finished I switched to the Man U match, only to find there was no satellite signal. I tried the terrestrial channels and they were ok. Then I started flicking through the SKY channels again. No Satellite signal. I rebooted the HD box - disconnect power, wait 10 secs and reboot. This resulted in a total "no signal" error - code 48.

I called SKY, we went through several procedures and concluded that an engineer was required. I decided to try my old SKY+ box instead. No satellite signal again, but this time the error code was 28.

It was obvious that the box was not the problem. Inspected, disconnected and reconnected all the cables - 3 no. feeds. Still no joy.

Paid a visit to the local expert for advice and purchased a 4 point LNB at a good price. I installed this myself, taking roughly 10 minutes to complete.

Result ? Full strength signal and 75% quality for both HD feeds.

The old LNB (Thompson) was over 5 years old, and my local expert concluded that it required a replacement - which was the same conclusion I had come to prior to my visit.

 

So, problem solved - LNBs do expire after all, contrary to some opinions that this is a rare occurrence (my expert didn't think this).

[silverfox1961]

In the "good old days" when I was a domestic satellite installer (remember the solid dishes?) a lot of people didn't know to leave the system on standby and just switched them off at the wall. LNB's when switched off suffer from temperature fluctuations and can fail. When left in standby, a small voltage was continually fed to the LNB, which kept them warm. The amount of times I had to replace LNB's was stupid. I was glad when I moved on to commercial installs.

[kwaks]

In the last couple of months I have had sky visit twice. First to supply and install a second unit into the bedroom, then a few weeks later to replace the original unit in the living room.

 

Both visits were free of charge, apart from the cost of me upgrading to multi room (though not adding on HD option when receiving the new HD box)

 

The simple choice of install/fix it or I will go elsewhere.

 

On the call to the faulty box (second call) they did point out I was now on a 12 month contract for multiroom, only for me to point out I could drop every channel and just pay the £10.

 

I did refuse their offer of extending the warranty/taking out service cover for the simple fact they did not guarrantee that replacement boxes would not be refurbs.

[Trestletable]

My Samsung Sky HD+ box is 10 months old and I can't record anymore when watching Sky on a different channel - I can either watch or record, not both and it seems to be a problem with the Signal Input 2 which is showing nothing at all. AV Forums offers a load of advice all of which I have followed carefully - but still not any better. Off to ring Sky again (second time - engineer solved it briefly but it's back again).

[loopinlouie]

Mine is only a few months old and untill recently was freezing and swtiching off to my frustration, due to problems with sky slamming my phone line are getting 12 months free services, so as aware its free didnt want to unduly moan about the box. Anyhow had room moveround and have somehow accidently found the issue, the installer did the installation with as little wire as poss as in the box was so restricted due to the wire tacked on the wall being too taught and only just reaching telly with strained scart. Another half meter of wire would have prevented it.

 

So undid the tacking to release, moved telly and box and suddently the hd box wants to play again, thank goodness.