Lesley Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Is anyone else having problems with theirs before I twist Carl's arm and make him phone Sky? We regularly have problems when it rains but this is different. On Sunday Ch4 was all garbled - but only through Sky, ordinary TV was fine. Sky+ recorded Time Team but we couldn't watch it at all. We set it to record Ch4+1 and it did the same on there. We've never missed an episode of Time Team Yesterday the planner was set to record Coronation Street - it just ignored it!! but it did record Location Location and Grand Designs - both Ch4 - and they weren't garbled and jumpy Today the planner was set for two programmes in the morning - both failed....... and then Doctors which also failed and Neighbours........ which it ignored and it is still sitting there ready to record I set it to record Neighbours at teatime.......... and it ignored it again I could understand if it was just one channel which was playing up I rarely watch these programmes live....... I prefer to watch them late at night instead. The whole set-up is likely to get a brick through it any minute Carl is very reluctant to phone Sky as you have to spend at least half an hour on hold - and I don't phone because they won't speak to me Is it just me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 fingers crossed since we spoke to them before xmas we have only had a minor problem. Sometimes our box freezes, say for example if i try to turn over it will say "searching for listings" and it will stay like that on every channel. Which means we have to turn if off at the mains and turn it back on again. We havent had any problems with our recordings thank goodness. I know how annoyingly frustrating they can be Lesley, we have had awful problems getting through, I find the best time to call is late at night. weekends are really bad. We complained last year because it was spoiling our viewing as we couldnt watch sky because of the box and they let us off 2 months subscription. If you do manage to get through to them, tell them if it carries on you will cancel and go with virgin or telewest (even if you dont intend to) that way they should be pretty helpful as they want to keep your custom. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Try browsing the digital spy forums. I had a problem with my Sky+ last year and after browsing there I found it was a common problem and copied an email to James Murdoch. Although I was out of warranty I ended up with a free engineer visit and a BRAND NEW REPLACEMENT BOX. Yours sounds like a different problem but I'm sure the guys there will have some advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 17, 2008 Author Share Posted January 17, 2008 Thanks PM - I'll go and see what I can find. Egluntine's been advising me by PM as well so I'll save the brick and the hammer and see what I can do. The problem is, it all looks fine and only later do I find it wasn't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becka Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 My box won't record two programs at a time and to be honest it appears to pick and choose what it records and when. Depends on which way the wind is blowing! We seem to have quite a few channels that have a 'technical fault' and i would use that term very loosely as I think the box might be going belly up. Unfortunately, they won't speak to me about the account and I'm still waiting for my husband to find a window in his very busy schedule (I use that term loosely too, he just forgets!) to spend half an hour to sort it out. Hope yours gets sorted out soon, there's nothing worse that losing part of a serial that you're desperate to watch! Becka Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfamily Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Lesley we do sometimes find in very very very very heavy rain that the reception goes a bit funny on our sky+. If it's recording and the reception is fuzzy then the recording will be fuzzy. Our dish is in a very exposed spot but that's the only place we can get reception Sounds as though it may be a fault with CH4 themselves as Ch4+1 is a complete repeat of Ch4 - transmission faults and all. Extreme adverse weather shouldn't effect the actual running of the box ie just not recording/ignoring a program Hope you get it sorted out - good luck with motivating OH to phoning Sky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 17, 2008 Author Share Posted January 17, 2008 I'm having great fun browsing Digital Spy forum - thanks Pengy! Very interesting.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 We haven't had a problem with recording,but we do have a very odd Sky+ problem. When we watch anything on Sky Box office,it skips & jumps all over the place. If we tape the movie & play it back,its fine All the other channels are fine - its just Box office. I am going to look at that site as we have complained about this time & again,but last time they said sorry,its now out of warranty,so they wouldn't send an engineer or refund us the unwatchable movie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pelicano Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 We had problems with a sky box a few years ago. It just used to freeze up randomly all the time. In the end we gave up and bought a new Sky plus (and upgraded to Sky plus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janty Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 Our sky plus box is a pain. We have had it replaced several times but they all seem jumpy and useless. We were out of warranty last year when we first had problems so I told sky to disconnect us as I was sick of it. They decided to send an engineer out free of charge and change the box. This worked fine for a while then the original problems occured again. We are seriously thinking about getting rid of sky altogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 I don't have Sky, but I just throw this in by way of an aside. My brother, liking fast cars and gadgets and being quite well-off, bought one of these thingummies that is supposed to warn you about speed traps. (I think he'd already clocked up a few points, and I am NOT endorsing his behaviour!) A few weeks later one of his neighbours said 'I don't know why, but whenever you come home and turn into your drive, our Sky TV goes funny'. Oops! He started turning the gadget off before arriving home - end of problem. I know it can be affected by various things, do you have any other electrical stuff (yeah, I know, a TV obviously!) nearby? just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 Well the only new thing in that room is the woodburning stove - nothing electrical. Portable phones can affect Sky - but the base of ours should be far enough away. The Digital Spy forum is very informative - I felt so much better knowing it wasn't just me I will phone them over the weekend when Carl is here and he can tell them to speak to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Lesley If Carl sets up a password on the account then in future you can speak to them if you know the password. I have multiroom - Mum then gets her own choice and we set up the password so Sky could deal with her too. Oh another way we are independant (my horrid colleague has been saying again how living with my Mum shows a lack of independance!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 I think we have a password - but I can hardly remember my name these days I'll see if Carl can remember it......... thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moochoo Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 We've previosly had this problem, you have to do 'housekeeping' on your hard drive to help. I'm at work at the minute so i'll try to guide you through it as soon as I'm home. We do this 'housekeeping' about once a month and so far no problems. It's very easy to do and takes about 5 minutes. It helps to clear any errors on the drive. We were also advised to set up the automatic standby function for overnight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMO Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Hi Lesley Have just sent you an email address to try! AMO x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moochoo Posted January 18, 2008 Share Posted January 18, 2008 Hi, sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you. Ok try this: Press Services on your remote Press number 4 System Set Up Press 0 then 1 then select Press number 7 sky + planner rebuild The screen will say 'Housekeeping please wait' The system will then switch off and after 90 seconds you should be able to switch it back on. You will not lose any of your recordings or series links doing this. If you don't mind losing everything in your planner you can always do the above but press number 8 Full System Reset instead of pressing number 7. If you still have this problem it can also be a faulty LMB on your satelite dish, sadly that involves a visit from the engineer. I hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 18, 2008 Author Share Posted January 18, 2008 Thanks Amo and Sarah - I'll try the housekeeping and if I have no luck then I'll email. I found that email on DigitalSpy, and it's the same person Pengy emailed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 20, 2008 Author Share Posted January 20, 2008 I've done the housekeeping thingy - Channel 4 was all jumpy and garbled again. It seemed to do the trick - we're just waiting to see what happens when Time Team is supposed to record.......... Thanks Sarah I've got all the other info from Digital Spy ready in case it doesn't work properly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 oooh wil this help with the sky deciding to cancel recordings problem? I missed men in trees because of this and theres no repeat. I can imagine how you feel about missing time team Lesley I would hate to miss it too. At least they get repeated eventually I s'pose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moochoo Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Glad it has helped, even short term. What I was told by sky was that you need to treat you sky box like a computer. It needs to have it's hard drive cleaned now and then to get rid of bad links made during previous recordings and it needs a little downtime so either put it on automatic standby mode or switch it off every evening. I have to say we went through a nightmare period of failed recordings, programs freezing and jumpy sound and picture. Touch wood we've had no recurrences of this since keeping up with the 'housekeeping'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 It was fine last night I purposely didn't check to see what was happening and it recorded Time Team. I think we will still have problems when we have rain - I'll wait and see..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...