on 5th sky+ box

Wheels

I'm after coming home after about 5 weeks away (with the sky+ being used while I was gone) to find that it once again no longer records. This is the fourth (!) box to give up, the last one being three months ago. Once I got through to a person they told me that I wasn't within warranty but out of the kindness of her heart she booked a call out to me. After getting a little annoyed at being told how lucky I was she re-checked and found my 90day warranty from the last time was not up until tomorrow. Anyway, they are coming out after crimbo (6th jan) but like I'm a bit sick of this. I got the box a year ago in november and I'm about to get my 5th. The person on the phone said that it was probably a surge but I'm not sure sure. anyone got any suggestions?

Tony

Hard drive failures on this box are really well above the normal failure rate for satellite gear and hard drives in general. I dont know enough about hard drives to say whether voltage surges are causing this but maybe it might be worth investing in a mains surge protector when you get your next box.

Wheels wrote:

I'm after coming home after about 5 weeks away (with the sky+ being used while I was gone) to find that it once again no longer records. This is the fourth (!) box to give up, the last one being three months ago. Once I got through to a person they told me that I wasn't within warranty but out of the kindness of her heart she booked a call out to me. After getting a little annoyed at being told how lucky I was she re-checked and found my 90day warranty from the last time was not up until tomorrow. Anyway, they are coming out after crimbo (6th jan) but like I'm a bit sick of this. I got the box a year ago in november and I'm about to get my 5th. The person on the phone said that it was probably a surge but I'm not sure sure. anyone got any suggestions?

digitaldr

I've had a Hitachi Deskstar 120 Gb drive in my SKY+ for ages now with no problems. Maybe it would be worth upgrading your drive if you have another failure? They're some very good guides on the net and if you're reasonably careful it's not too difficult.

beer enigma

Tony wrote:

Hard drive failures on this box are really well above the normal failure rate for satellite gear and hard drives in general. I dont know enough about hard drives to say whether voltage surges are causing this but maybe it might be worth investing in a mains surge protector when you get your next box.

Well on the flipside - I don't know enough about Sky boxes (apart from owning one), but I do know my hard drives !. Tony is right, even the smallest of voltage fluctuation 'can' kill a hard drive if you are unlucky, so a surge protector is an excellent idea for the box. Another one to check is the cabling coming from your RF1 & 2 outlets if you're using them. I know of a case where the coax used was earthing somehow & fed back through the RF socket, again causing a voltage fluctuation & taking the hard drive with it.

Tony

Andip wrote:

Well on the flipside - I don't know enough about Sky boxes (apart from owning one), but I do know my hard drives !. Tony is right, even the smallest of voltage fluctuation 'can' kill a hard drive if you are unlucky, so a surge protector is an excellent idea for the box. Another one to check is the cabling coming from your RF1 & 2 outlets if you're using them. I know of a case where the coax used was earthing somehow & fed back through the RF socket, again causing a voltage fluctuation & taking the hard drive with it.

very interesting, I had not thought of the RF. I've come across NTL feeds where an isolation box was not used and the cable was live (can give you a nice jolt, dont try this at home) I wonder could this also cause a problem. I have no rf in to my box and have never had a problem. Has anyone here had a hard drive failure where the was no aerial in/rf in?

byte

Heh, NTL aren't the only ones who sometimes don't use isolation boxes! A few houses I've been in had Chorus without isolation boxes, some of which caused AC "hum bars" on the screen when digibox was connected. Another one just gave me a jolt when I tried to plug the RF lead from the TV (which was off, otherwise I would've blamed it instead)