Sky+HD recording and playback issues - Technical Fault 7

[misterhelpful]

Hi all,

Recently been having some issues with the old sky+HD box (Amstrad) and don't seem to be getting very far with Sky customer services so thought I'd ask here.

The problem being that recordings regularly fail or only part record due to 'Technical Fault 7'. Initially there was only some skipping in playback but now most recordings don't playback at all and I can rarely pause/rewind live tv. Even the search and scan banner now frequently says 'searching for listings' and takes an age to show the picture when changing channels.

Contacted Sky for help and they got me to do a planner rebuild which didn't help so then updated system software which also didn't work. Finally had to resort to full system reset. That seemed to work as the first few recordings afterwards were fine but then the problems started all over again. I've had to do full system resets countless times now just so that I can record/pause/rewind for a few hours at a time (a whole day if lucky ).

As said, Sky don't seem to be able to offer much more advice, and would probably expect me to buy a new box (no chance - will cancel it all first!) so can any of you please offer any suggestions or information as to what I can do and also as what Technical Fault 7 actually means?

Cheers
MrH

 

[footprints]

I know this is not the problem you have but it might help.
I found the memory was disapearing from my sky box even when I had viewed everything saved. Turned out that having "Anytime" activated was the cause I switched off anytime and the memory was restored, any chance that your problem might be related?

 

[misterhelpful]

I found the memory was disapearing from my sky box even when I had viewed everything saved. Turned out that having "Anytime" activated was the cause I switched off anytime and the memory was restored, any chance that your problem might be related?

I've just had a quick look at doing this but can't seem to find Anytime anywhere now - it just called On Demand. That's probably because I have the small On Demand wireless connector so would it just be a matter of disconnecting that or would this just revert to the original Anytime service and would I then have to disable that in the settings somehow?

 

[Lucid]

I don't know if there's an official announcement from Sky, but everything I've read about TF7 seems to point to a hard disc problem. Some say it's the drive failing. Others that it's the way the box is handling the allocation of space that it is creating bad sectors.

TBH, secondhand Sky boxes are cheap. I'd pick one up for £30-£40, get my card associated with it and use that instead.

 

[Sam Gangee]

What's the DRX --- number of your Amstrad? If a repair kit exists for it then it's prone to capacitor failure. And/or it could be the HDD as suggested above.
See http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page12.htm#amstradkits

A second-hand unit could be the answer but bear in mind that plenty of unscrupulous people "dump" problematic units on eBay to get rid. Also anything other than a repair will lose your recordings.
http://www.digifixltd.co.uk

 

[footprints]

My Sky+ box is about 6 years old, I push services button and select option 6 Anytime set up and toggle on or off. if that's any help.

 

[misterhelpful]

Morning All,

@footprints

I spoke to another Sky advisor via webchat last night and asked about deactivating the Anytime/On Demand service and was told it's not recommended. Strange how the option is there to be toggled if it's not recommended though. They probably just want me to pay the £65 engineer callout fee! I may try it later just to see if it works because I only really use that service to look for programmes that have failed to record in the first place.

@ Sam Gangee

The box is a DRX780UK so it doesn't appear that there is a repair kit unless more are available than in your link. I also don't really like the idea of a second hand box for the reason you mentioned but all recordings are lost anyway because of needing to do the system reset.

@Lucid

I believe you are right with regards to what TF7 is because, now that I think of it, the original Sky advisor said, 'It sounds like something on your hard drive is corrupted.'



Thanks for the help so far, any further advice is greatly appreciated. If I don't get anywhere later, I'll probably end up calling Sky again to cancel multiroom, HD and some of my subscription channels, then revert to using just the older Sky+ box from the other room. Maybe they'll make me an offer I can't refuse!

 

[misterhelpful]

No luck with disabling anytime so called Sky to cancel and they 'talked me into' staying with them by offering a new HD box and half price subscriptions for 6 months plus free multiroom. That's the least I deserve after being a loyal customer on the on full package for 14+ years.

HAPPY DAYS!!!

 

[footprints]

Glad it worked out looks like you got a pretty good result, shame they didn't throw in the Adult channels too

My box is playing up a bit now keeps telling me to turn off and wait a few mins a few missed recordings too. Guess I will go the "I want to cancel" route and see if the come up trumps for me too!

 

[misterhelpful]

...shame they didn't throw in the Adult channels too

Now you tell me!

Good luck with yours.

 

[misterhelpful]

Hey guys...new problem.

Received the new HD box with built in wifi this morning and am just setting it up when I discover there are no aerial in or RF out ports to connect to and only one scart port.

This came as a bit of a shock and now means that I can't use the TVlink in the spare room anymore or connect the dvd recorder to the new sky box unless there is something I am missing?

My question is, are all the new sky boxes like this or have I been sent a lower spec version because they gave it to me for free?
If they are all like this, then surely it's a bit of a backward step by Sky or, more likely, they are just being crafty and trying to get customers to sign up to multiroom or multiscreen to watch in all other rooms!!

Also, while posting, the viewing card I took out of the old box is charred around the outside of the chip and the reverse side of the chip is completely black - is this common or would it be because the old box's problems were causing it to overheat?

 

[Sam Gangee]

For the magic eye problem see http://www.satcure.co.uk/reviews/satcure_blog_182.htm#iolink

For the burnt card problem see
http://www.satcure.com/tech/signal_problems.htm

All the answers are on that site!

 

[misterhelpful]

Excellent....thanks Sam.

If I'd gone to the back of the booklet it does say that the new boxes don't directly support a tvLiNK and that I would need an IO Link.

Will sort the burnt card issue out now.

Cheers
MrH