Bricked Fortec Star Beta

watty

By an ESB power cut.

You don't seem to be able to update firmware unless you can get into its Menus.

Sometimes displays " on " then a bright " oo " or " nn " or " rr " briefly before panel goes blank. No video.

Any ideas?

What "blind scan" receiver would folk recommend? (That's what I bought it for).

pbirney

Sorry Watty, I can't offer any suggestions re. the Fortec, however I can recommend the Technomate TM-1000D as a v. good blind scan receiver.

~Paul.

Zaphod

I also use a Technomate 1500 Super+ and have no problems. Also worth considering is the Manhattan XT range.

fat-tony

I have a Manhattan Plaza ST250, with a self-installed HD. It will handle symbol rates up to 45k without problems. It's driving a Moteck SG2100A. The only slight issue I had with it was slow lock on the NBC transponders on 15W. The user interface is a bit quirky with a lot of use of primary colours - bit amateurish, not configureable. No access to the software internals - proprietary tools from manufacturer for firmware update and transponder list updates. The blind scan is very effective, though. I'm not familiar with the XT range which may have eliminated some of these niggles.

byte

Yeah, I also recommend Technomate, either the FTA TM-1000 models or the TM-1500 CI+, which as the name suggests, has a CI slot, and a card reader.

I've both, though only using the TM1500 now.

watty

OK maybe next time I will buy the Technomate.
The slightly good news is the 1 yr warranty on the FortecStars are honoured by Maplin, but not immediately in store. I paid by CC, so didn't need a receipt (March purchase). They will possibly ship a replacement direct to me or else I will have to pick it up in store.

Thanks folks.

wil

They currently have the Fortec Star Lifetime II FTA on offer with an 85cm dish for €129. (half price supposedly)
Says it has Powerscan - fast blind scan
"http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=220072&doy=13m10
for receiver only.
If that is better than the Beta, maybe worth considering if they would give you the option of trading up.
Have to say spec of Beta looks better, dont really understand the pricing but they dont look like same manufacturer.

After looking further as I guessed much like Comag they use OEMs in China etc but as of May2007 launched their first product (Passion) developed by their own engineers in their newly opened (?) engineering house in Korea. (I presume they just bought one of their main OEM suppliers)
Reason was because of OEMs also selling through other retailers and no control over OEMs in measures to prevent hacking.
They intend to cease using OEMs as their own products are introduced.
So I'd expect lots of discontinued models from them soon.

Maplin has several sat items on offer this month including diseqc motor €64, twin lnb 34.49, touchbox2 FTA €68.49.
Maybe at last they are starting to respond to the Lidl offers.

byte

watty wrote: »

OK maybe next time I will buy the Technomate.
The slightly good news is the 1 yr warranty on the FortecStars are honoured by Maplin, but not immediately in store. I paid by CC, so didn't need a receipt (March purchase). They will possibly ship a replacement direct to me or else I will have to pick it up in store.

Thanks folks.

Well, that's not too bad. Maplin take around 3-4 weeks from experience to deal with returns.

steveon

I have a brand new fortec star beta 2 if ur interested watty

watty

Maplin are sending a new replacement under Warrenty

MD-GK

watty wrote: »

By an ESB power cut.

You don't seem to be able to update firmware unless you can get into its Menus.

Sometimes displays " on " then a bright " oo " or " nn " or " rr " briefly before panel goes blank. No video.

Any ideas?

What "blind scan" receiver would folk recommend? (That's what I bought it for).

Hello Watty,

I had exactly the same problem with a Fortec Star receiver that I got from maplin, I brought it back to them and they found nothing wrong with it. It turned out that it was my LNB at fault - random spikes being returned to the receiver causing it to freeze and the 7 segment display producing odd displays.

watty

I have an alternate receiver working ages on same LNB and back on it now. Lovely job, but not sold anymore. To-morrow I will ring Maplin and find out where the replacement is.

eddy64

i fixed my beta which had the same problem, tried a lot of thngs and finally got it working by flashing it with the alpha software from the fortecstar site

watty

Mine "bricked" again. There is a Feed Sat on Atlantic that when blind scanned does it

Was it Alpha SW you loaded to a Beta?

eddy64

yes i flashed the alpha software to my beta reciever, i tried the beta software first but that didnt fix it (was still going to the black screen with the white line on it).

it might work for you or it might not, i think the alpha and beta recievers are nearly the same box.

watty

Maybe the Alpha is Beta with the CI slot hardware?

Unfortunate names these days...