Sky HD Box - No Signal?

[eveares]

Hi all, someone who I know has a old Sky HD box which they candled their Sky subscription a couple of years ago and have been using it to watch free channels ever since. A couple of months ago (when we had the bad weather in the UK) according to them it stopped working.

I went over to theirs yesterday and confirmed the box does indeed have absolutely no satellite signal reported on both feeds, but it's been over 10 years since I have had Sky, so don't know if Sky might of deactivated the box or if it broke in some way. The box only has the power, HDMI and the two satellite feeds connected. No Ethernet or telephone line connected, but I would assume the box is Wi-Fi enabled.

I did go up on the flat roof of theirs to have a look at the dish, but no part of the dish or LNB seemed loose or movable, so assuming the Sky HD box has not been deactivated or broken, I can only guess either the satellite cable has got damaged somewhere or the LNB on the dish has failed.

Of course I can't guarantee the dish has not been blown out of alignment, but the dish seemed very securely fixed.

Any ideas?

Regards: Elliott.

 

[Jurassicspark]

Unplug the skybox and try again.

Inspect the dish and see if there is a spiders web obstructing the LNB.

You should be able to view the skybox satellite signal strength on the menu. If the percentage is low then that will mean the dish isn't alligned properly.

If it's at 0, unplug the coaxial cable and see if the inner core is still instant. Sometimes it can snap and not make a good connection.

Have you got any antenna boosters?

 

[Lucid]

The same signals that Sky uses as part of its channel package are also used for Freesat. When a Sky subscription is cancelled, Sky can (and does) switch off access to the paid-for subscription channels, but the other ones stay active. For this reason, I think the issue is more likely to be some sort of equipment failure.

Possible reasons for signal loss:

* The dish has moved - Cause - corrosion of the fixings, and you mentioned bad weather

* The LNB has died - A possibility, but there's normally a period before it finally dies where there's signal breakup, and it doesn't sound like they experienced that from what you've written so far

* The cables have broken - This doesn't mean they're dangling, cut in half. It could just be that they're using aluminium braid and at some point the outer sheath cracked to let in moisture. Aluminium braid turns to mush in the presence of water. This process is accelerated if there's a voltage present, which there is in satellite system cables because that's how the LNB is powered.

If this was a system with just a single cable, then I'd consider this a possibility. I think the odds reduce significantly though when it's a two-cable system. Both cables would need to be damaged, and to die at the same time. You can check by swapping over the cables. If only one died, you'll get signal back by swapping them over.

* A box fault resulting in no power to the LNB - Another remote possibility but it can't be ruled out. The way forward here is to take the box to someone who has the same sort of Sky HD installation (not Sky Q) and then swap it out. If it works, you know that the box is okay and that it's a cable / LNB / dish alignment issue back home.

* The outliers - This is the weird stuff that you wouldn't normally think about. I've had it where customers have lost signal because something like a fast-growing leylandii has blocked the line of sight, or some building work has gone on where scaffolding gets in the way.


My money is on the dish moving. A quick check your friends can do is to put the system on, press Services, then select Setting, the Signal. If there's some level shown for Signal Strength, but little or nothing for Signal Quality, then it means the dish is pointing at the wrong satellite. Have it realigned (or replaced and realigned) to fix the issue.

 

[eveares]

Update on this, the Sky HD box has now magically fixed it's self! Went back a week later to install a new Wi-Fi system at their place, and when I connected the Sky HD box to the new Wi-Fi, I noticed that satellite signal on both feeds had returned and was good.

They said they had not done anything, so I recon the box just needed rebooting, which I should have tried last time I was there!

 

[Jurassicspark]

Update on this, the Sky HD box has now magically fixed it's self! Went back a week later to install a new Wi-Fi system at their place, and when I connected the Sky HD box to the new Wi-Fi, I noticed that satellite signal on both feeds had returned and was good.

They said they had not done anything, so I recon the box just needed rebooting, which I should have tried last time I was there!

Glad to hear that.

Next time, at least show some appreciation by saying thank you for the effort we tried putting in to helping you. A little bit of manners doesn’t cost anything.

 

[eveares]

Glad to hear that.

Next time, at least show some appreciation by saying thank you for the effort we tried putting in to helping you. A little bit of manners doesn’t cost anything.

Of course I am grateful for and appreciate the help that those on this forum provide, just my life does not resolve around this forum and that I have a busy life. I hardly call not replying on here until yesterday a lack of manners. Not like I was having a go at or arguing with anyone on here.

That said, thank you.