Page 1 of Help! - I think my Sky digibox is bust

Hi,

Although not a dvd problem, I thought this would be as good a place as any to ask - judging by the amount of people on here who signed up for the £100 Sky+ deal.

My Sky digibox seems to be broken. The power seems to be going to the box fine - the standby light is on - but you can`t switch it onto Sky. I`ve called Sky but they couldn`t do anything, so I thought I`d ask before calling someone out. Has anyone else had a similar problem or does anyone have any advice?

The digibox is an old black, Pace one - early 2000 - I`m just wondering if it`s come to the end of its life? Has anyone else`s digibox died on them?

All help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Featherstonehaugh

Unplug it from the mains for 30 seconds-plug it back in-wait about a minute-if it does not switch on via the remote after that-get Sky+

Yes

Sometimes they freeze and since there is no on off switch the only option is to disconnect from the mains and then reconnect. If you don`t get the Sky set up channel the thing is bust.

Disconnected and reconnected - still the same - permanently on standby - tried turning switching to Sky via the remote and the front of the digibox.

Anyone got any recommendations on a digibox? prices, models etc

Would change to Sky+ but I don`t subscribe to the pricier packages so I can`t really justify the price of a new box and the extra subscription fee.

Anyway, cheers for the help. Keep the advice coming, if anyone has anything else to say on the matter.

Sounds like the power supply, has gone, had a dvd player that did the same, its probably blown a componet, however if you dont know any repair guru, to get it fixed will probably cost you 45 quid upwards. Would consider upgrading, put the box on ebay as faulty probably get fifteen or more for it.

A WISE MAN ONCE SAID

This item was edited on Friday, 6th February 2004, 08:00

A service call from Sky costs a £65 flat fee and includes all parts and labour including a new box if you do need it.

Boxes are for sale on e-bay for less than you probably think.
The new box will probably perform much better than your existing one anyway plus it means you`re not giving SKY their ridiculous £65 callout fee.
£65 I was last week for a new LNB... :(
An LNB that can be bought on the net for £13 and,if I had a ladder or could havwe borrowed one,could have been fitted in 5 minutes flat.
It took the engineer approx 2 minutes to fit,then the rest of his callout was needless cocking around, which left me with a half-out scart lead resulting in no sound on a recording I made that night.
Useless twats. >:(

I had similar problem with my old Amstrad digibox a few months back. I opted for the £65 Sky callout simply because I`ve not got the know-how to do my own repairs to things like LNB`s and so on. Turned out my box was totally dead and they gave me another one (a Grundig) which has so far outperformed the Amstrad in every way. In this case, I feel I did the right thing.

One thing more to try. Unplug the box from the mains. Wait approx 45 seconds. Press and keep your finger on the "Back up" button on the machines facia. Plug the machine in and a few lights will (should) flick on and off. The machine should go into a software download by force. (If the machine is locked, this may be the job) Make sure it`s connected to a phone line.

Actually you dont need to be connected to a phone line when forcing the digibox to software update, i`ve done it a few times myself