Sky + box has died a death...

[doctorstrop]

Hi, my sky + box has just died. The box powers up, and I can here the hard drive clicking, but I am unable to proceed past standby. When it powers up the machine clicks in regular intervals, as if the harddrive has failed. I have tried holding the backup button down whilst I plug the machine in, to do the system update, but this does not help.

I have called Sky and they want to charge me £70 for an engineer to repair it with a 90 day warrenty, but £70 for a sceondhand machine that might screw up after 90 days is steep.

What I want to do is get the upgrade kit for my model; Sky+ Receiver Model Pace TDS470N (PVR3), from http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/, but my Mrs will go off it if I shell out the money and it doesn't work.

Does it sound like a hard drive problem, or is there anything else it could be?

Cheers
Andy

[handyman]

I can give you the email addy of a guy that will sell you a super sky+ box, i have a 250gb one and it stores massive amounts of programs.

[doctorstrop]

What sort of price am I looking at? ( I'm tighter than a gnats chuff!)

[zaax]

Sky have been playing (again). You need to hard reset it.

Switch off at the mains plug, unscrew aerials and take out, take the viewing card out, check all for damage, and leave it for a 10 mins. Then put it back together.

While holding the back botton on the box it'self switch on at mains plug. Hold the back down until you see the traffic (three) lights come on.

Wait for it to down load software.

Enjoy

Originally Posted by zaax

Sky have been playing (again). You need to hard reset it.

Switch off at the mains plug, unscrew aerials and take out, take the viewing card out, check all for damage, and leave it for a 10 mins. Then put it back together.

While holding the back botton on the box it'self switch on at mains plug. Hold the back down until you see the traffic (three) lights come on.

Wait for it to down load software.

Enjoy

Hes already said a software download hasn't worked. The drive is clicking so is obviously boogard. New drive required.

[Tricky]

How long have you been with SKY, I've had the old "we need to charge £65 (must have gone up) to replace, repair etc" in the past and I have told em no I won't you'll do it free gratis cos I pay you £45 a month for service and you are not giving it me.

Originally Posted by Tricky

How long have you been with SKY, I've had the old "we need to charge £65 (must have gone up) to replace, repair etc" in the past and I have told em no I won't you'll do it free gratis cos I pay you £45 a month for service and you are not giving it me.

Sky have cracked down on the retentions offers, and you will now find that they will probably let you leave.
I'd probably look at Ebay for a Sky+ box, Sky will certainly transfer the card across to your new box, as long as the one you register is not logged as stolen.

[doctorstrop]

I have sorted it in the end by having a couple of cans of beer and phoning sky up half-cut!!! I threatened them that I was not happy spending £65 on a product that could fail in 91 days and leave me requiring another £65 shell out. So if they charge me I'm going to Virgin who charge £2 less (20mb broadband and phone, virgin recoder box and second normal box) and although they no longer have sky one I wouldn't miss the single new episode out of the 30 odd simpsons they show a week, nor "smarter than a 10 year old".

They have booked an engineer to come out a fix it free of charge. My Sky + box is out of warrenty and mine, so they can't kick off about me hacking it open either. My Mrs is now happy!

Just so you know my sky + box is a pvr 3 pace, and I have had it since Augst 2005. Hope this helps anyone

Cheers

Andy

[Chrysalis]

Sky seem still willing to compensate, not only did I get a new box for free but they also gave me a discounted sky world for 3 months without argument when I asked.