Sky Plus system fault, how to fix faulty Sky+ without £65 callout fee

Hey, Paul - excellent news, and a great write up.

Can I have your permission to post a link on the SH forum to this item in your blog?
It would really tidy up the thread and provide closure for an increasing (I guess) number of folks.

Regards,

SH

Please do! The more places that link directly to this article using the words 'Sky plus system fault' the more people it'll help.

I am having these problems with my Sky+ Box, and I have just used the freephone number, it works, and guess what when it's them paying for the call they answer your call straight away!! No more waiting and no more expensive calls :o)

Top tip!!!

Andrew

Well done and thanks. I was heading for a new satellite receiver until I read this recommendation. Sky were quick to tell me that I own the receiver as it's more than 12 months old and I would have to pay for a new one or pay for a repaired one. I just told them I was going to cancel my £10 subscription and they said they would send someone out to fix it rather than lose me as a subscriber to sky plus. Doesn't seem unreasonable. They want my business!

pass this on to www.moneysavingexpert.com so as amny as poss can get access. A free phone no is a wonderful thing!
We have a pace 2500n stuck in standby. I switched off elec to save leaving stuff "on" whilst on holiday and now its half term, no TV.. Im popular

I had a similar problems with my Sky+ box- locking and freezing up, I contacted sky, they send an engineer, he checked the box and said it was easier to change the box but said he only had the new 80gig Amstrad model would i mind ( heck no double the space free) he changed it but since that i get a pixelated picture the on view with missed sound on recording, i have had a further 2 boxes all doing the same i am told its software related but i am just wondering if its the type of hard disk that is used, when i suggest this to the engineer he said it could be. He told me that he as taken on of these boxes apart and the disc is not an 80 gig disc but infact a 160 gig disc with 2 80gig partitions. anybody out there got any suggestions

Thanks for the advice - phoned Sky thay wanted me to spend the £65. I searched the internet and found your article so I tried the fix. It worked just fine and saved the money and hassle of hanging around for an engineer and having the day off work!

PS Good Luck with the Baby, kids are at times a pain but worth every minute!

Thank you just saved me £65 or a new box. SKY what a bunch of *****

I hope you can help, my Sky+ receiver is producing a humm on the connected phone line. Even if i remove the mains, the scarts and the LNB cables the humm is still there on the phone line... Simply removing the phone cable stops the humking so i know its the sky+ box. The box is about 18 months old so out of guarantee. The odd thing is that the phone part of the box is still working so not that critical as yet but a fear it will eventually fail.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
David Loakes

I have had six sky+ boxes so far. Do not worry about the humming noise on the phone line, it happens with ALL Pace PVR2 boxes (I have had three). My best receiver (a Pace PVR2) was replaced because of the buzzing (big mistake). I should have put up with it as the Amstrad that replaced it was rubbish. I have so far had one AMSTRAD box failing every third or fourth recording and a picture quality that was near on unwatchable when there was any action going on (you could not even tell that Halle Berry was a woman as she walked out of the sea on James Bond-Die another Day). Another AMSTRAD box liked to turn itself on and off whenever it wanted. I used to get up some days and it would be on channel 998 which was not too much of a problem but would turn itself off once a day in the middle of a program. It took 30 seconds or so to turn back on. I have had an AMSTRAD that put the hard drive to sleep randomly. When this happened, trying to access any sky+ functions like the planner, pause etc. would give a message "For your information, please wait". Only unplugging it for 10 seconds would get it working again. This was annoying because recordings would fail when this happened. One AMSTRAD box kept losing lip synch for a few seconds, once or twice every minute when playing recordings or live paused TV. I have even had the engineers twice replace my box with one that was no good off the van (remember that all replacements are refurbished). One had a stuffed modem and the other had no LNB2 signal. After all the phone calls, complaints, engineer visits, I was given the freephone number. You must be given it when you have spent over £100 on phone calls or lost five working days waiting for an engineer visit. By the way, just before my warranty ran out, I phoned about audio and picture breakup problems to be told that a software update was due that would fix it and to wait for it to be downloaded. When this update did not cure the fault, I phoned back to be told I would have to pay as it was now out of warranty. I persuaded them to see the error of their ways and now have another 90 days warranty on this new box, another Pace PVR2.

i had my Sky+ 160 replaced just before Christmas when it was still under warranty, although this did take a lot of effort and the threat of me cancelling both boxes.

The second unit has been playing up for weeks locking up etc and finally all access to the planner failing. Not looking forward to the hassel of arguing with Sky i followed your advice and how it works prefectly.

Thanks for your help

Paul, thanks for this. I had exactly the same problem this week and was facing a £65 callout charge. I found your comments yesterday and followed the procedure you described above, and it's worked. My sky box is working perfectly now, no thanks to the useless b@@@@@@s at Sky.
Thanks - You're a star !

Hard disc on sky+ box packed up today. Rang to get sky engineer to visit. Sky said it would be £65 to visit. Said I would have to cancel subscription due to lack of funds and they then offered visit for special deal £32. I said I really would have to cancel as I didn't have even £32! Telephone operator was then mysteriously able to talk to supervisor and get me a free visit! Be persistent and don't pay!

Hi I am having the system fault that you describe and have just tried the fix that you recommend but unfortunately I am still having the same fault. The box functions fine for viewing but I am unable to rewind or record anything. It just gives the System Fault message. The box that I have here is PACE?
Any further ideas?

I'm glad everybody seems to be finding the 'how to fix Sky Plus' advice useful, and thanks to those who have added their own tips and stories... keep 'em coming!

hi,has anyone had problems with programmes that have been recorded onto sky plus?We seem to be unable to watch anything we have recorded....sky seem to be very unhelpful and after much hassle have agreed to send an engineer.We have only had sky installed since dec05!Also if they have to replace the sky box we will loose all recordings,unless we copy onto dvd.HELP how do we do that?

Many many thanks.
Your advice fixed our Sky+ box and saved us £65!!
Really appreciate it.

we had sky + installed arounf dec. so far have had one engineer visit who downloaded new software still having same problems. sky locks up completely, fails previously recorded programmes we have to switch off and start again. Sky have given instructions how to restart the box,but as per earlier thread we would then loose all we have recorded just trying to gte them back agaain, really pi@@ed off with them at moment. will post what happens

cheers

Wow - deja vu.... I was so happy to find your site as I, also, had a new box put in Dec 05 and have had nothing but problems with it since then. I rang sky to upgrade to a multi room option and was offered sky+ as an inclusive package, as i was already on their full deal package - I thought ok it wont cost me any more - just the £50 installation fee -- well it`s cost me a lot of frustration - missed programmes etc and having to turn the box off at the wall to be able to reboot the system. Grrrrrrr I`ve had enough now.As I write this I`m waiting for the sky engineer to call so watch this space - at least thanks to your site I am forwarned and ready for the engineer so he hadn`t better fob me off. Many thanks again

Fantastic im not alone! My Sky+ developed the same recording fault... Sky Plus System Fault
Sky+ playback and recording are unavailable.
Please call 08705 800800 for assistance so i to went through the process of calling customer services and after they talked me through various ways of resetting the box and updating the software version but only to end up worse off as now the box wouldn't even switch on. I was now faced with the option of either calling the £65 engineer or £25 for a freeveiw box whilst i waited for news on HDTV. I decided on the cheeper option for now and rang Sky customer services and explained the situation and without even mentioning possible known issues i was offered a free of charge visit and if the fault was unrepairable the box would be replaced with a new one also free of charge. Happy days!!

Ah the power of the internet, such a useful source of information. My sky plus box starting playing up around the time we started recieving updates. The final straw was when it decided to wipe all our recourdings and switch it's self off. powering the box back on was to say the least challenging, took 5 attempts at switching it of, on and unplugging completely.

A call to Sky resulted in the reset process being applied, but after a few short hours the sky plus box failed again. I found this web site and applied your recommend fix. It worked great for 24hrs and then failed again (aagggghhhh).

Here is my point/advice. After a bit more research I rang Sky and presented my case.

1. The box only started displaying a fault since the updates and changes ocurred to the sky planner.
2. I pay a hefty full subscription cost to sky
3. Yes the box is out of it's 12 month warranty/guarantee period but I do know a liitle about the sale of goods act. Simply stated it is reasonable to expect the product to continue to work beyond the 12 month period. For the box to fail only a few months out of warranty is, in my view not reasonable. (especialy as they need me to have a functioning sky box to continue to recive my subscription)
4. Hey presto I was informed that a free engineer call out will be provided to fix/replace the sky plus box.

So stay calm, state your case along with the facts. Mention your legal rights and Skys need for you to have a working system to continue receipt of your subscription and they "Will" listen and recieve the message loud and clear.

Great site. Thanks for the information

Great advice - thanks so much! Fix worked a treat, so not had to pay for engineer. Cheers...

I have had the same problem with a PACE box but have found an easier way to reset the system.
If you press the services button and go into the System set up menu, press 01 on you remote handset and then select.
You should now be presented with a new hidden menu.
At the bottom of the list is (8)Full system rebuild. If you hit this, the system will clear the hard disc and shut down the box. Wait a minute and then turn the power back on and the system should be up and running as before.
Also on the menu is item (7)Rebuild system which is useful when you hard disk is saying you have little space left but it looks like you should have. Normally if you look at the bar along the top of the planner screen you will notice that as you go down through your programs that it shows how much space each program uses. If there are spaces then you can rebuild it to reclaim the space. This option does not remove items from the planner.

Thanks to these instructions I have fixed my sky+ system fault. Now I have to stop the engineer arriving, he is coming in the morning!
Thank you very much for all the information provided on this subject.

Thanks - I was fuming when they told me it would cost £65 - I'd just given an engineer 50 quid to install a dish after moving home. When I got back from work (a friend waited in for the engineer) I found that my recording was fubared. Called them and they tried to squeeze another £65 out of me.
It seems very convenient that this just happens to occur just after the 12 month warranty is up...
Thanks for the fix - I'll try it when I get home.

They have CLOSED the 0800 number for SKY anybody else got a freephone number?

Amanda

MY pacesky plus download latet update started shutting itself down done full reset on hardrive anywhone got any ideas cheers mark

Can anyone help?

My sky+ box is about 15months old now, and has worked okay so far, but recently we notice that some of the recorded programs are stuttering on the sound and vision, as though the hard drive is starting to develop bad sections where it has been recorded over and over again.

In our experience the faults occured originally in this order: 1] playback sound and vision stuttering (as Nigel describes), 2] playback fails on some recordings, 3] recording, live pause, and playback on all recordings fail. Applying the fix detailed above should sort the problem out, but you will lose all your recorded problems, and the error could re-occur at any time so if you record something you definitely want to see, watch it soon!

Our Sky+ box (warranty ran out in October 05) has just started to stutter whilst playing back recordings from the harddrive. Will a replacement hard drive do the trick or do i fork out the £65.00 for a Sky engingeer?

hi, i tried everything,but my sky+ still did not work!! i tried what was on your website,i was one of the unlucky ones,but even though it didnt work for me,everything you said it would do,it did and it was worth the try. I called for an engineer,and demanded there be no charge and it worked!!in the end,sky are coming in two days for free!!!so many thanks for the advice given on your website.This is the second sky+ box i have had and lots of problems with them ie: recordings failing,cannot count how many programmes i have lost in planner,no live pause,picture on all recordings going(squared)on play back box freezing!!

thanks alot mate you saved me £65 with your advice

I have had 3 sky+ boxes in 3 years,they only ever seem to go wrong once the warranty runs out!!! all the problems everyone has mentioned above i have also had and more!! Its great technology if it worked!!sky should make the boxes free seeing as you have to have a working box in order to subscribe to sky,even more so because of all the problems.its just a way of sky making a huge profit,its not about customer care.I also got a free call out by an engineer,i was told it was a one off on this occasion,but i have read loads on-line from people who have got the call out for free,so why cant it atleast be free when the boxes are so expensive in the first place. yes after a while things break,dont mind replacing then,but sky+ boxes dont last five minutes!!! I WISH SOMEONE COULD BE ON THE CONSUMERS SIDE FOR ONCE AND STOP COMPANIES LIKE SKY FOR RIPPING PEOPLE OFF,ON RIDICULOUS CHARGES!!!THANK GOD FOR SITES LIKE YOURS!!

Thank you for the information posted here Paul.

My Sky+ box totally packed up, the disk was full. Last year I had the box replaced and just over a year later it has started to refuse to record, and is very slow through the menus. Eventually the error messages have started saying that the disk is full, when I regularly delete my viewed programs.

I would advise anyone to follow the guide here to do the reset of the system, just follow the steps, its simple. I've literally just completed the reset.

Last year I spent ages on the phone to sky, only to have to call the 3rd party installer to fix it. If your box is out of warrenty follow the guide here to resolve its issues.

Regards

Paul

I have the Sky+ System Fault again, 6 weeks after writing this article and applying the fix. I've fixed it again but now I know it's only temporary. We pay for Sky+ and don't expect our recorded shows get wiped every few weeks without notice.

This is great i got my box at ebay and after reading about your free call out when your box is broke(did work for 6 months) gave them a call and said i couldent aford the cost and they are sending an engineer free of charge ....

Nice one paul great info !!!!!

My SKY+ box froze up on just it's 2nd day out of the box it's a Thompson (which I thought was a fairly good make), however it has done it 4 times since then.

I thought I had got lumbered with a rogue one until I found your excellent site and realised I'm just one of many.

The next time it plays up (as seems certain) I will try the Services menu method outlined by Andrew Chandler.
Thanks

I have had two sky+ boxes, and just prior to the warranty ending on the latest one Sky kept phoning, asking me if I was interested in taking out an extended warranty.(yet more money for Sky). There was nothing wrong with it so i didn't. Then about a week later it all started going wrong. Just a coincidence I am sure. The usual resets worked and although annoying I was able to live with it. Then the sound went on Sky Movies 1 2 and 3 from this Jan to begining of March. Sky said it was not their fault and it must have been my AMP. Oddly my amp did not mind the other 200 channels that went through it. Then someone let slip when i phoned up to moan about it yet again that it was a problem that they were aware of and working on. I finally got (wait for it) £10 out of them when i said I would downgrade my package.
UNFORTUNATLY the box turned itself off last night and i lost all the recorded stuff. I have tried running a full reset and even the tips on this site. I have to conclude that the box is well and truely nackered.
I wish I had seen the comments before arranging an engineer as despite arguing my case AND threatening to cancel my subscription altogether, all I got was" I am sorry you feel that way, when would you like it to take effect from" (obviously did not take that far enough) i have now parted with 65 quid to have an engineer come out and tell me the obvious. And I am sure he will try and get more out of me when he eventually turns up.I am disgusted with the way that Sky CONTROL everything and we the consumer have to put up with it. And they say AOL is bad.( Yes i have got that too)
I will phone and cancel my subscription tomorrow. Maybe I will save myself a load of money in the long run.
Anyway, has anyone else been offered an extended warranty and refused, only to see the box self destruct weeks later!!!

Tried the fix to no avail, playback of recorded programs is now so bad we can't use it as it stutters and starts losing picture and sound!

Called Sky, and they suggested the £65.00 call-out, but with haggling it is now down to £32.50. They did not appear to want to go further and i did't want to end up cancelling my subscription!

Thanks Paul.

My Amstrad Box packed up this week, totally kaput after weeks of freezing and stuttering, so I have bought a brand new Pace 3100 with an 80gb hardrive from a guy on E-bay for £70, just £5 more than the initial Sky call out charge.

I've had sky+ 4 16 months,first box gave up after 3 months.new box was ok until christmas just after software update.now i never know if sky sports and other pay 4 channels will be on or not.they can be ok 4 a week then off 4 2 or 3 days.got usual response from customer services,£65 call out!finally said cancel it and i'll get ntl in.guess what,engineer coming tomorrow free of charge!

We got a new Amstrad box on Thursday (our third since December) and recorded 3 programmes to watch on Friday night and tho and behold all 3 had picture and speech missing and were unwatchable. Went on to Sky and complained and they said it was a software fault and we would just have to live with it as Sky+ was free. I pointed out that i had paid £250 for installation and buying the box and that i could have bought a decent dvd recorder for that which i could have taken back to the shop if faulty. They still said tuff. Would love to cancel Sky but would not be able to get the football if i did so i'm stuck with them and their lousy product.

Hi Paul,

Having exactly the same problems as you have described. You can add my name to those of unsatisfied customers. Best of luck with your crusade.

Regards,

Barry

My Pace box has suddenly decided to jump into standby after its been on for about a minute. It plays recorded programs with no problem but a minute after switching back to live tv it packs up again. Any ideas?
If I have to call Sky I'll be using the "I'm gonna cancel." line. :)

Thanks for doing this - Our problems started just after having had the Sky+ box for 12 months (Dec 05). It continually crashes and deletes recorded programmes. It used to work again after a rebuild or a reset but now its totally gone. My wife is very upset having lost loads of her favourite progs and we pay (along with many millions of others) the full £40+ monthly whack for this.

I won't go into details, but have had a long couple of conversations with Sky tech help. Same problems as outlined re crash of sky+, all recordings lost, system fault etc. I was astonished at the unsympathetic, almost confrontational stance taken by the tech team, this before I had even started to complain. Admittedly I sounded annoyed, but so would anyone be who had recorded a couple of films, and a lot of episodes from serials, only to find that puzzling message on the TV screen. They should EXPECT that reaction, yet at this stage I was VERY controlled and civilised. What an innocent I was. I am also disappointed about time spent on telephone, money spent on telephone, going through the rigmarole of the solution procedure (faulty info as it happens after reading your article), being told if this didn't work to tel next morning for engineer call-out, being told that there were no records of these conversations, and therefore no call-out allowed unless i went through the procedure again. Being REFUSED permission to speak to a manager after I explained that I wanted an engineer to call out as I had already tried EVERYTHING sky had asked. More money, more annoyance, more stress, more astonishment at the farce that is officially known as "Sky tech help". Being told that hardly any-one has had problems with the Sky+ system, being patronised with the stupid question "if you had known in advance that there would be a problem with Sky+ losing recordings and locking up would you have still bought it?", the smug inference being clearly that yes, I would, because I was a little pleb who should know his place, and should lick the boots of the great god of broadcasting to be able to own such a magnificent invention. "WHY YES, OF COURSE I WOULD HAVE ORDERED IT; AS I WOULD ORDER A FAULTY WASHING MACHINE, TELEVISION, CAR... IF I HAD THE FOREKNOWLEDGE I WAS BUYING A FLAWED PRODUCT". BY THE WAY SKY "TECHNICAL" IDIOT, THAT'S IRONY, LOOK IT UP IN THE DICTIONARY IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT. And all this over just 1 1/2 days, how do the other long-term sufferers cope? We can hopefully make this the non-future of Sky, as I for one will be taking it further with their bigwigs. They are not good at PR, and I am not going to take that kind of service from a company I HAVE PAID and AM PAYING a large amount of money to.

I've had Sky+ since 02.10.05 and am on my 2nd Amstrad box. Had all the problems listed above, most irritating is the sound drop out when playing back programmes. More worrying is the system freezing and switching itself off. I was offered yet another Amstrad box but refused it as the guy couldn't tell me if there would be an improvement! Tech help have taken me through the processes a million times and I've just called for a 4th engineer visit on the understainding that if it can't be fixed once and for all I will be cancelling my subscription (or at least asking for discount or free months). I'm holding out for a Pace box as Tech just told me the sound issues are only on the Amstrad boxes and that there was a shortage of Pace ones - is that because they're in high demand by any chance??!
Add my address to your list of disgruntled customers please!!

James

Thanks for the reset tip. Gave it a try and it seemed to work... until we were in the middle of watching a program on playback and a new recording started then it was a nightmare for the lipsync being out and the dropouts in sound. Grrr!

Then last night's 24 was awful - and the box wasn't trying to do anything else at the same time.

I think it's time to shout at Sky again because when my husband spoke to them previously and he commented that the problem had really begun after their recent update (with the new planner) they said they were aware of it but couldn't give a definite date of when it would be sorted. But from things I have read on the internet it sounds as if they have had these issues since at least Nov 2004 so I don't think they are actually bothered about sorting out the problem.

I do remember a friend who works in the television business telling me that Sky Plus had all sorts of problems and to hang off getting it until it was sorted... wish I'd listened to him now (although will they ever sort it?).

Anyway - please feel free to add me to your list for Sky.

Michelle

I recently purchased a Sky plus box via Ebay to upgrade my system from basic Sky to sky+ (was sold as faulty,stuck in standby) and i used the Full system reset to fix the problem.
This fix has been well documented on a number of satellite forums,but:-.
There are a couple of other fixes that can be used.
Stuck in standby,failed recordings etc can also be due to a loose IDE cable or a faulty Power Supply.
So check the IDE cable if the problem persists,also there are a number of companys out there that sell replacement Power supplys or Power supply upgrade kits.
With the early Sky+ units (PVR1's) its always a good idea to upgrade the power supply as they are prone to fail.
Chances are 90% of the common faults are more than likely due to software updates but it's always better to be safe rather than sorry.
Hope this helps.
Cheers Kieth.

just to say thanks we have been having the same problems with sky+ with it freezing up and also not having enough space to record programmes even though we have nothing recoreded on the planner just tried you fix and guess what it worked we now have no problems at the moment.thanks

Been having problems with sky plus since the software upgrade. Basically can't watch any recordings as they all stutter too badly or turn the box off. Tried the above fix but unfortunately no better.

Last time I called Sky I was told they were planning to get a new software fix out by the end of March. Don't know how often these plans change though.

Had problems after the software upgrade last year too (though not as bad) and they were sorted out remotely eventually. Hoping this means that there is nothing wrong with the box - seems a waste of time getting an engineer out. I think it's just a case of waiting for them to fix it centrally. Could try for some money back for lost service though.

Sky have abandoned the freephone number, it now tells you to phone 0870 404040 when you phone it.

Thank you for saving me hassle, time & money

When you first ring sky about the problem they cause by more than likely downloading the bug to your sky+ box when your warranty ends, they tell you how to fix it by carrying out a system restore, they then record that this proceedure has been carried out and as it works gain your trust (but say this is a last resort and next time an engineer call out will be needed) they then give you a week or so of a problem free sky+ box before downloading a new bug to your sky+ box which won't be fixed by a system restore. £65 please......... thank you SKY scammers

I've updated the article to say that once you've had an engineer callout (even a free one), your box is under warranty again for 3 months, making further callouts during that time free. I've also added how to do the full system reset (thanks for commenting about this, Andrew Chandler).

Thinking of up-dating to sky+ but after reading this excellent site am considering waiting. Any idear when it will be safer to take the plunge?

Wow!

Thanks to you guys I have fixed my Sky+ box. It's a fairly old model - had it since summer 03 and it got a bit odd last autumn and finally packed up in November. Rang the tech guys, who to be fair we're pretty nice and did talk me through some of the reset procedure but to no avail.... Haven't had any Sky+ functionality, no access to any planner functionality and no box office functionality since then and it's only my SO's addiction to football that stopped us cancelling entirely. There was NO WAY I was paying £65 call out fee.

I got really fed up last night, searched Google found this site and used the fix. However it did take a couple of goes and I left the box disconnected from the mains overnight. So I would suggest to those people who don't get a result first time to persist. Interestingly the interface was different 2nd time around. Do they queue updates?

Just adding my name to the list, started having playback problems about 2 month ago (just after my warranty ran out). Going to have to try the reset now despite having loads of stuff I don't want to lose, looks like I'm gonna have to fork out on that DVD recorder.

Good luck with SKY, hope you manage to get somewhere.

Regards,

Glenn

glenn@glenns-site.co.uk
glenn_dunwell@hotmail.com

Just about to ring Sky to report my new Sky + Amstrad box
continually locking up and stuttering in certain places when replaying stuff. The locking up is getting worse.
I'll report further on the outcome.

Tried to ring Sky today to report the fault on my Sky Plus box (see previous posting)Used the standard Sky phone number but was told to ring back on another number as they are having new software installed. Rang the number given 08702 404040 to be told that they cannot help because their system will be down until Friday and they cannot access any customer accounts. They did give a direct technical number 08702 435000 which was simlilar to the last mechanical voice but I managed to speak to someone call Neil who advised me that he couldn't either help because their new system was being updated and he couldn't access my account until Friday - same story. He did say that I would be re-imbursed for any losses!

Hows that for service - five days before thay can even check my account so I can report the problem. What an absolute shambles.

I'll try again on Friday. Just a thought, if they are using the same software on their internal systems as they use on the Sky Plus boxes we'll have to re-boot them half way through our telephone conversations.

We have quite an old sky+ Amstrad box, with a larger Maxtor hard drive installed by me. Worked a treat for much more than a year and for me sky+ revolutionised the way we watched tv.

In the past few months we get sound dropouts on Ch4, Sky1 but most channels work ok - shame it's those channels we record from the most ;-(

Done reset etc. Issues can go away if we switch box off and on and press record when show on rather than series record etc. Clearly a software issue that wasn;t there a few months ago.

I will be putting old drive back and getting sky to fix but don't feel very reassured this will happen given what I have read here and elsewhere. Have to do something since we have stopped using sky+ to record cos we can;t trust it any more to pickup our favourites series.

We've had continual problems with recordings made from C4 & E4. I set up series link to record My Name Is Earl, and IT Crowd as well as others and barely have seen any of them due to the stuttering sound and picture that plays back. I spoke to an engineer today and they confirmed Pauls point (above) that E4 and C4 are problematic channels (although others seem to be fine - does anyone know why?). Going to try the hard-disk reset now though and hope for the best... Good luck with the campaign.

The Sky Plus engineer came yesterday and replaced our faulty Pace Sky+ box with a refurbished Amstrad box (photos: Pace, Amstrad). Because I'd had a free callout last month my digibox was still under the 3 month warranty, and the replacement also now has a 3 month warranty. Fingers crossed that it doesn't develop any faults this time! (although the recent comments about Amstrad boxes developing faults as well as Pace boxes really point towards a software defect rather than a hardware problem).

I had an Amstrad box that worked fine for around 2 months, then sometimes for no reason at all when playing back or deleting a recording it would crash and the only way to get it back on was to remove the power lead, when i reconnected it the last few recordings would be marked as failed with Technical Fault 8, i called tech support and they went through the planner rebuild, still didn't work, then went through full system reset, it then worked for a few weeks more and i started having the same problems again, this time i deleted all the recordings, and it said that i had no recordings but there was only 98% free, I called Sky and explianed the situation and said i want a Pace box ONLY, the next day the engineer delivered a Pace box and its been working perfectly since then.

In Short, If you have problems with an Amstrad box ask for a Pace, but be adamant that you want the Pace Box.

HTH

D.

I got a Thomson box in January 2006 which was noisy and kept having failed recordings, two weeks later it was replaced by an Amstrad which was quieter and worked fine for a while.
Now we get sound dropout on Dolby Digital recordings, the planner cannot be acessed sometimes without unplugging the box and turning it on again, we get failed recordings and the box turns itself off whenever it feels like it.
Called Sky and was told to wait for a software update at the end of March, called again this morning Saturday April 1st and was told an engineer would be out to me on Sunday ???? hope this isn't an April fool joke.
I demanded a replacement box and asked for a PACE box.
I also recently got an e-mail from SKY asking me if I would like to preorder SKYHD for £299 .................Yeah Right.

i am fed up with sky,this is my forth box in three yrs,just had new box for two weeks now it wont turn on!!!! yet again i`v lost loads of my programmes!!!

Add my name to the ever increasing list.... On my second Sky+ box this year and that's just failed too! First box was a Pace, current box is Amstrad. How do they get away with this behaviour towards their customers. If only there was cable in my street....

HI,

Can someone please help. I have tried the recommended way of fixing these bl**dy boxes but nothing happened. I turned off a mains, turned on pressing the buttons but then nothing happened at all after 20 secs. tried over and over agin-- please help-- am I doing it all wrong?

I have a PACE box and it is 2 yrs old now. I have been having problems for ages now. Have done all what Sky say to do ie rebuild, total system reset etc and still I have problems.

If my box is totally knackered can we buy them cheap on ebay or places like that?

Cheers, Pete

I have just had sky plus installed yesterday 5th april 2006.
All went well its an amstrad 80gb when the engineer left we noticed that the Broadband internet access had failed.....and yes i had fitted a filter to the phone line.Eventually worked out that shutting the whole lot down by the mains and re putting the phone line in again whilst it was disconected from the power solved it. Later decided to record a programme and set the record time, as soon as the box started recording the broadband went again.
When i unplug the sky plus box the broadband works fine so it must be the box.Has anybody else had this problem? any ideas to solve it?
do you need to have it plugged into the phone line all the time?
As i bought the box from sky with no special deals eg £250 because i didnt want a 12 month contract, can i just leave it unplugged from the phone line and still get the functionality?
Failing all that im going to ask them to remove it and re install my 6 year old amstrad box that never had a days problem!!

Had Sky+ for well over a year and worked fine. Then it started to jump/lose lip synch. Out of warranty but I've got NU Home Appliance cover and so Norwich Union had to pay the £65. On my fifth box now. Lost everything we recorded over Xmas and countless other times. Engineers never try to fix a problem, only ever swap the boxes for other re-conditioned models. Current one has crashed once so far but I'm too depressed and angry to call Sky yet. I reckon we've had poor to nil service for about six months - without the £65 call out, that's £270 they've had from us in subscriptions without supplying what they're meant to. I think I'm just going to switch it all off and take up reading. Keep up the good work on this site, but it's not a web campaign we need to sort these idiots out, it's a para-military one.

Thanks for this advice. We used the fix described in this article which lasted us a few weeks but eventually the problem was happening every 3 or 4 days so I had to call out an engineer who came today. Used the threat that we would leave if we had to pay £65 and surprise, surprise, we got the engineer visit free of charge and they swapped the box. The engineer, as described in other people's comments, said he had seen this problem happen alot recently and thought it was related to the recent software updates Sky were sending for the new HD ready programmes Sky are now offering. What a con - charging £65 for a problem they have caused!!!!!

I USED TO WORK FOR SKY AND THEY ARE PRESSURED INTO MAKING PEOPLE PAY £65 FOR REPAIRS BUT MOST OF THE TIME YOU DONT NEED TO BECAUSE YOU CAN MEND IT YOURSELF. WHAT EVER YOU DO DONT PAY THE £65 SAY YOU WILL END YOUR SUBSCRIPTION.

THIS ISNT SKYS BIGGEST PROBLEM THERE FIRST IS THAT A LOT OF CUSTOMERS ARE GETTING UPHAPPY THAT THE PRICE KEEPS GOING UP AND SKY ARE CHARGING MORE FOR SKY PLUS AND WILL DO FOR SKY HD

exactly the same as everyone else. Have tried the reset and will try it out tomorrow. I would never have gone the plus route if I thought it would have had so many problems............

If this fails, remove the drive and plug it in a PC without any other drives in.

The maxtor tools are on Hirens boot cd http://rapidshare.de/files/17629104/hrns8.0.part1.rar.html && http://rapidshare.de/files/17629316/hrns8.0.part2.rar.html

Simply low level format the drive then use the 2 finger reboot/reset procedure. This even works if you get the no signal on channel 2 issues that indicate a HD fault.

C.

How refreshing to find that I am not suffering alone......I have had alot of similar problems with SKY failing etc and they wanted £65 for call out so I have up to now just sufferred the fact that I keep loosing recorded programmes....However I will now be back onto Sky regarding the payment of £65 and my desire to withdraw my sky subscription.

I can t believe it, so much people have had the same problems as i have. And i mean, intermittently none of the Sky + feature work (should of stuck with my old Sky Box). Ive had my box since December 2005 and it been replaced once and it still give me problems. Im so surprised that Watchdog (BBC) have not heard about this problem.

Can we get together and produce an e-mail petition? Perhaps it could be sent various MPs, monopoly commission, BBC, to stimulate more competition. I'm stuck with miserable Sky because I can't get a Freeview signal here and I don't have cable.

r0n

I've also experienced all the previous mentioned problems with a Pace PVR2 box (cannot pause/rewind, sky planner programmes deleted, etc). After contacting Sky CS for the 3rd or 4th time, I was told to do the usual resets. After this, all worked ok for a while and then back to normal problems. The I wrote a very long winded email to BskyB. The result being a free engineer visit, who replace the Pace box for an Amstrad. Will wait and see how this one goes. All these problems seem to have started after the software updates of Sep 2005. Before then it was super.

I agree totally that something has to be done, as Sky are getting away with charging customers £65 for problems that they introduce.

Bring on WatchDog...

Hi. Discovered a few days ago that we can no longer record a programme while watching another. The warranty ran out on our box about 6 months ago. When I phoned Sky they wanted the £65 engineer fee to fix. They said only one signal is being received that is why we can only record the programme we are watching.

They went through the whole resetting of the box etc, but it still wouldnt work. I said I couldnt afford the call-out fee. Think I should phone to cancel my subscription - I am paying £46 a month for sky+ and multiroom!

Hi, our warranty ended about two weeks ago. Now our box is suffering from playback issues (Pace V2 3100). I called Sky last night who tried a few things, now the box won't do anything relating to record/playback. I suspect a HD issue so I've got a new hard drive on order. I'll attempt to fix it myself, hopefully it'll work.

They wouldn't allow me a free engineers visit and I got forwarded to their cancellation dept... maybe they are trying to tell me something?

It's very suspicious that all these boxes suddenly stop working after the warranty period??? Bit more than a coincidence!

Hey Paul, thanks for the info! I phoned Sky today and said I wanted to cancel my subscription coz I couldnt afford to pay for an engineer to visit to fix my Sky + box. They immediately arranged for an engineer to come on Saturday, free of charge! Amazing! Thanks so much........Happy Easter all!

First had the problem in Feb, just after the 12 month warranty expired. Discussed this with Sky over the phone - lady talked me through essentially your article. This fixed the problem but all programs were lost which went down well with the wife! Went again last week when I followed your guide - thanks. Tried to record a program again last night, gone again, this time, after following the guide sky+ recording was still unavailable. Wondering if a new hard disk might do the trick?

Hi,

I posted a comment a few days ago with the same problems you're all having. I'd paid the £65 for a call out, and had several reconditioned boxes that were even worse than the first one. Phone calls requesting a brand new box were always met with polite refusals to give me one.

In the end I sent an e-mail to Sky's Service Desk saying how much I'd spent, how poor their service was, and that I was just going to keep getting my reconditioned box changed ever twenty or so days until NTL bring out their rival to Sky+ in the autumn, and then I'd be off. They're coming to put in a brand new box on Sunday. No doubt that'll pack up as well, but it's covered for 90 days, and I at least feel I'm getting something for my £65 now, rather than a batch of other people's knackered sky+ boxes.

I can't remember the e-mail address, but they give it to you on the helpline when you ask if there's anyone you can complain to.

It seems this is a company you really have to stand up to if you want to get anywhere. Disgusting.

So glad to find this site and realise I'm not the only one who has problems with Sky+, appears I am in the early phases of the fault but am about to call Sky for a FREE engineer visit (I only held out for the 1/2 price one last time).

Hopefully this campaign will get Sky to admit the issue, upgrade the quality of hardware so there will be no need for sites such as this - do they think we enjoy complaining for the heck of it? - All we want is a good quality of service for a fair price!

Thanks Paul for initiating this campaign

I had exactly the problems described, i.e. jerky playback, frozen recordings and sound drop outs, tried the above and after a couple of weeks the problem came back. I believe this problem is also caused by bad blocks on the disk.

In the end I took the opportunity to upgrade the hard disk to 250GB (about 125 hours) with an upgrade kit from XtendedPlay:

http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/sky-hard-disk-upgrade-kit-250gb-drive-p-47.html

Now I've got loads of extra recording space and a working Sky+ box!! NICE!!!

Just spent the last 1/2 an hour (whilst waiting to be connected to Sky actually) reading all the above posts; I have had exactly the same problems; sound cutout, pixellation; now this evening the box has finally had enough of its fun and games and has died completely.

I have tried both the 7 & 8 options from the Services>01>Select menu; they worked for a time but now nothing.

In the past, the problems have been particularly with Channel 4; we gave up trying to record "Lost" about halfway through the series (although it seemed to work okay with E4); but recently we've had problems with nearly every channel.

Thing is, I've got an Amstrad box and I've just literally ordered a 200GB Samsung HA200JC hard drive for it. It's a 5400rpm one; will it matter which box I get to replace it? And might this help cure the problem?

Also, the original installer assured me that putting the box in a closed TV cabinet wouldn't cause any problems; but I have a sneaky feeling that heat may well have contributed to the demise of my box (there was also a AV Amp and 2 DVD player / recorders in there); now I've taken the back off the cabinet, hopefully things should be better.....

Well, I've finally got through and I also played the "well I think I might be better off without Sky" card on the phone (even though we are in the sticks and can't get anything apart from Sky) and because I had already called them back in January about this problem, they did give me the engineers visit for half price - £32.50.

I am expecting to get a refurb'ed box; but as soon as this shows any sign of problems, I'm going to be on the phone every day ordering engineer's visits until I get a new one.

Engineer's coming on Tuesday, so I'll let you know what the result is; but in the meantime, please add me to the campaign list......

Checked the web so haven't contacted SKY, have used your 'fix' which has worked twice(many thanks). I am expecting total failure shortly. Having now read all the posted comments, the sooner a competitor enters this market the better, customer service might count for something...

I got a amstrad sky digital box thats is stuck on standby.Is there anyway i can fix the problem myself instead of paying £65.I have been through the sky route of doing what a engineer on the phone tells you and it wont work,any ideas please?

Hi, I have tried the fix mentioned but unfortunately it didn't cure the problem, Sky+ does not work at all. Next step will be to call Sky to try and wrangle a free engineer.

My box is also only two months out of warranty, so please add me to your list.

Had Sky Plus for ages now same box no problems at all (I must have got lucky) Shortly after the channel change, which caused loads of problems when they did it....(box wouldnt re-start, lost all my recording ect.ect), I now get stalls in playback, program just freezes and shows 0 mins remaining.

Problem is now getting progressively worse, hence the search for this site.

However, I cant get into the "engineers Menu".

I press

Services>4system setup>01 or 0>1 if you like....nothing. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks...

BTW add my email to the list please.

Steve

My box is also broken and i followed your advise, I was offered an engineer call out but not for free at half price £32.50. I'm thinking of calling back and saying that I am going to switch to NTL and see what they say then.

I have had my Sky plus PVR2 box for just over 2 years. It works perfect. It never misses anything and doesn't do anything it shouldn't. Am I just lucky? No. Im not. I have been fitting Sat systems for 18 years and I fitted my own.... properly.
Think about it. The sky plus box is the strongest link in the system. The weakest point is the cable and then the connections. If you have just upgraded to Sky plus and just had one new cable fitted then ask yourself how old the other cable is? Quite often it isn't even CAI approved cabling. Quite often the Engineer comes along and bangs on a Quad LNB and doesn't even bother to check the alignment when he has done it, let alone make sure the connections are tight. The new quad LNBs are rife for causing connection problems because they are exposed with nothing more than a plastic rainshield. This is easily overcome by smearing waterproof grease on the cons. Not everyone does this but its something I put on all my fresh installations and service calls. Something as simple as to many bends in the cabling or to tight a clip can cause problems as well.
Ask yourselves this question. If your box fails and gets replaced and then fails again a few weeks later and then again do you really think its a bad box? Did the engineer walk in with a replacement under his arm because he can't be bothered getting his ladders off to check everything else? A replacement will work fine until its full up of the same errors that caused the original to crash and the engineer is long gone by then and you are left once again cursing the box.
Next time you have a fault, ask yourself about the original install and try to find out which was and wasn't replaced.
We will always have product failure but the amount of no fault found boxes that pass through is far higher than than the failures.
Thanks.

Paul.

Well.. Thank you so much for this, wish we had found this sooner as we have been without Sky+ since last autumn, as we refused to pay for an engineer call-out, out of principal and were toying with the idea of buying anew Hard-Drive from eBay!

When we first rang Sky to say that the box would no longer record and had deleted all of our saved programming, they advised that as we were 3 months out of warranty we'd have to pay. The bloke said it was very common for Hard-Drives to pack up within 2 years!! I told him that my hubby and I were IT Engineers and he was talking cobblers!

Anyway, back to today, we tried your fix a few times and it did not work, so after reading the posts on here I rang them and politely said I wanted to cancel, I said that it was a known problem and that customers within warranty were being told different things to customers not in it. She denied all knowledge of any such known problem!

She said if I paid the £65 they would guarantee a working box or a new one, I said that the charge works out at almost 10% of my yearly subscription and that I was not willing to pay that so if she would be so kind as to cancel it then I would make arrangments to go with NTL (Yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiight! But she's not to know that I'm not THAT mental.)..

So she says, "Would you be prepared to have an engineer if I did it for half-price?" so I stuck to my guns and said "That's very kind of you, but I have been lining Sky's pockets for 6 years, I don't want to line them any more, no disrespect to you. Thanks for the offer, but no, I will go ahead and cancel please."

Sure enough, on cue.. "If I got an engineer out to you free, would that suit you?" I replied "Why would you be prepared to do that as I am a suspicious person by nature." her response "You have been a loyal customer for a long time." I accepted her offer graciously!

She was originally sending an engineer out in 2 days, but we are going abroad until next week, so she is giving the day after the bank hol, so little over a week.

RESULT! Thanks everyone.

My Sky+ system gave up the ghost and before coughing up the £65 I though I would try your remedy!

Blimey! I was amazed, also by the fact I did it myself. I'm not sure if the fault will return but I'm damn sure I won't pay the £65. I have 2 boxes plus multiroom and pay them over £50 pm, so I'll threaten to cancel all. Thanks so much for the info and beinf able to record the Grand Prix for my hubby !!!!

cheers ,just saved me £69 ,think sky needs it ass smacked and i am going to tell them that just after posting this message.This is the second time this has happened to me ,first time under warrenty,they obviously have a product problem and i wont rest untill they all the world knows.At least three people i know have payed for the engineers visit and i would have too if not for your wonderfull site.
Once again thankyou off now to email sky customer service who had the cheeck to send me a £5 gift voucher for the inconvenience of MY sky breaking

I upgraded to Sky plus last september as i was going to cancel my subscription at the time as i was wasnt getting much use out of all of the channels, but decided to go for sky plus instead, as this would enable me to record programs and get some use out of my subscription. The day came and the engineer installed the Amstrad sky plus box. this worked very well for a short while.

Then it started to miss recordings and when you came to use it, it had frozen all of the sky plus functions. the only way round this is to reset the box. but by having to reset the box is just like not having sky plus in the first place as you are for ever manually intervening with the box and when you do leave it, it doesnt work.

The first time it happened I rang sky and they sent an engineer who replaced the box with a reconditioned amstrad out of a plain brown box which actually had a faulty sticker on the side!! this worked ok for a week before showing the same symptoms. i rang sky again only to be told that it was the software at fault and not the box and that they were working on new sowtware.

Mean while i am paying £36 a month and hardly watching any thing.

I rang again after a couple of weeks of further reseting, and this time they said they would send an engineer. the engineer turned up with another recon box which lasted 4 days before showing the same symptoms.

When phoning back now they are playing the "software is at fault" card. I said that i wish to cancel my subscription as i wasnt reciving the service that i had asked for, only to be told that i have signed a 12 month contract. I stated to them that i had signed a 12 month contract for a service that i wasnt getting, but they just dont seem to care!!

I am now at a loss as to what to do?! if there is anybody out there that could possible have any information as to haw i might be able to resolve this please let me know.

I just had Sky + installed about 10 days ago. Within the first weekend of recording, I got 4 that Failed. Not happy, I called the engineer directly(he left his mobile no incase of failure). He talked me thru the reset - (he was going to replace the whole box, but since I had recorded programs for my girlfriend whilst she was away, I wasnt happy to loose them).
Press Services (similar to Pauls above but not resetting whole system)
No 4 Key in "01" then select + 7 (Rebuild)
Hit Backup button on box and keep pressed -
Take out power then after a few secs put it back same time
keep backup depressed.
This will upgrade the OS on the box which to date is currently
1.31AOK EPG 4.01a.

Regards
Nico

I am in the same boat as many and have been for some time - sound drop-outs, initially only on C4 when playing back a recording but starting to notice it on live broadcasts and on some other channels too. Have already reset the system once when on the phone to Sky - lost all my toddler's shows which didn't please him much and my wife less! Worked for all of 5 minutes.

Definitely seems to be worse since the software upgrade that changed the layout of the planner.

Will have to get on to them, but am stuffed if I am going to pay £65 with no guarantee of resolution. Don't have many other options in my area (i.e. Freeview and TopupTV), but will stick to my guns and cancel if necessary.

have sytem reset, stripped the input wires down
plugged everything in and out loads of times seems im not on myself. Think your right about the sky software updates it seems that since all the menus altered i have had nothing but trouble and would gladly leave sky ,but before it went wrong (funnily enough just after 12 months as i had not taken the optional insurance) it was the best thing since sliced bread. Just wish they would stop ripping off loyal customers.arggggggggggggggg

I just found this site after ive had problems with Sky+ so thought i'd share my experience. I've had Sky+ since it came out and to be fair its a great service. However a few months back I started having problems with recording programs. Most commonly the programs recorded but had so many sound dips that they became unwatchable. I knew the box was out of warranty so just decided to live with it. This weekend I started to review how much I actually watch Sky and realised it wasnt that much. Since I have the full package at £42.50 a month I did consider cutting it down a bit, but decided instead to cancel the subscription. After following the phone options through to the 'cancel subscription' section, I was very quickly put through to a call handler. I explained I wanted to cancel due to Sky becoming too expensive and was put through to another department which I like to refer to now as the 'happy place'. These people obviously get forced to undertake 'nice' training before they can answer the phone. Anyways I was soon offered a choice of two discounts, either 3 months of half-price or 12 months for the price of 9. I expressed an interest in the 12 month period since this offered me a saving of approximately £8 per month for all the same packages. Furthermore there was no additional contract period tied in so I can still cancel anytime I want. I threw into the conversation that my box is faulty and the guy tells me he's only allowed to do one deal per call, but if I were to call back again someone would be able to help me.

Call number two and I decide to go through the same phone route, choosing the options to cancel. I explain my previous conversation to the call handler who takes me through a standard 'reset the box' routine. To be fair and polite I follow the procedure and agree to go away and test the box following the reset. I try to record a program on Sky One. I then switch channels. Pretty much all other channels are unavailable, due to satellite signal not being received. I stop the recording and hey presto all the other channels are back again.

Call number three and once again I follow the 'cancel' route through the telephone system. This time I inform the call handler of my box reset and how it didnt help. I now get put through to techical support. These people are clearly forced onto a 'not so nice' training course before they are allowed to handle calls. The guy sympathises my problems without offering any solution. Then he informs me I should get an engineer out at £65.00. I inform him that a new box is only £89.00 on sky's website so its hardly much more to buy a new one than to have the current one fixed. He kindly informs me that £89.00 is only the new customer price and that £200.00 is what i'd have to pay for a new box. This is apparently a special price for loyal customers. I inform him that i'm hardly likely to pay £200 for a new box when I originally phoned to cancel my subscription and he advises me that I should go ahead and cancel. Also he informs me that no one with my family name will ever be allowed to resubscribe to sky at the same address in the future if I do cancel. I figured this was an extremely lazy threat, especially given that the first option on the telephony system is for people wanting to resubscribe to Sky. I tell him to go ahead and cancel. He puts me back through to the 'happy place'.

Here i'm spoken to by a caring individual who is deeply saddened by my decision to cancel. I inform them my decision is now based on the attitude of their engineer. After a momentary pause the caring person offers to speak to their manager. A minute later and they are able to offer me a free engineer visit to examine my faulty Sky box. I explain its out of warranty and they say thats ok. I ask if i'll be liable for costs if the engineer finds faults and i'm informed the callout covers all replacements, including if necessary a replacement box. I agree to this.

Today the engineer came. He discovered not only a fault with the Sky box but also a fault with the dish. He replaced the box and also replaced some component on the dish. He left with the box in apparent working order. The premium channels were not available and he said it would take anything upto 4 hours for them to be restored. 5 hours later another call to sky. Some problem obviously occurred and they have to do some kind of reconfiguration to match the viewing card to the Sky box. It will take anything upto 4 hours for this to take effect. 4 hours later a