PACE SKY+ 3100 (v2) Fault

[caketin]

Hi

My SKY+ has just started to show its first fault and we have had it a few years.
The problem is failed recordings on the hard drive.
The box shows power failure in the planner.
The planner will lock up and crash the box with a please wait message.
I have changed the hard drive, forced a software update, Rebuilt planner factory reset etc from the engineers menu.
To stop my recordings failing at the moment I have to leave my box on 24/7 I can not put it into standby at all or I have to pull the plug on it to reboot the system.
I now suspect this being a faulty PSU.
I would like to purchase a repair kit to fix this PSU I can not see any kits on this website only replacement PSU's.
I might be wrong with my diagnosis, any thoughts anyone?

caketin

[admin]

Read the following article then read the comments:-
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/25/sky_plus_software/

It might be relevant to your situation.

BTW we don't offer a kit for some Pace models because the replacement PSU is so cheap.

More:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=934809

May I remind you of our posting guidelines:
Posts should include the MAKE and MODEL NUMBER ON THE LABEL.

[taylorjc]

The problem can be solved by removing the power lead for 20 secondds and then rebooting. However if the box goes into standby the problem returns so go into the sky + setup menu and switch off the auto standby option
_________________
Jonathan Taylor

[jack7755]

I have also experienced the fault discussed on this post and can confirm that removing power for about 20 seconds is a temprary fix. I have followed the link from admin and note that Sky are possibly going to roll back to the previous firmware. My problem is this, before I got the current problem, I had another issue which I haven't seen mentioned and it might be caused by the previous firmware. When I changed to a non terrestrial channel I got sound and picture fine for about 20 seconds and then sound and picture froze for about another 10 to 20 seconds and after that it was fine. This didn't happen if I changed to BBC1, 2, ITV, CH4 or CH5, but did if I changed to any others. Has anyone else seen this problem in the past.
Regards

[Bez]

I had the same issue with my upgraded Pace V2 box last week.
I found it best to remove the viewing card from the box, put nto standby to allow the disc to run down, before power down, wait a couple of mins, power up and then keep hitting the Sky button on the remote until I got a menu. After that my planner was available and I could re-insert the viewing card.
There was a thread about the issue on digitalspy last week.

Box has been fine since, but it hasn't been in standby or powered down.

Hope this helps.

[Bez]

here's a link to the thread on DS

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=28851635#post28851635

[AlexLockhart]

I have had precisely the same problem for the last two weeks.

I had changed the disk a few years ago, and I assumed it was time for another change.

I tried a few different hard disks. (There is some folklore about the Pace box allowing only 8 secs for the disk to become "ready".) I eventually robbed a 320GB disk from my PC, deleted the partitions and used Copy+ to replace all the data on the disk.

This seemed to work. However, if the box goes into standby, the power-on seems to take too long and the box fails to recognise the disk.

The trick of power-off the power-on seems to work as long as the box is not permitted to go into standby.


I have ordered some new hards disks (from the recommended list) so I am a bit miffed about the problem being an "upgrade" from Sky!

Any news on the "downgrade" would be helpful

[amjbrown]

Same issue for me - disc replaced years ago with the then recommended 160gb disc.

I turned auto-standby off, which "fixes" the issue, but was worried about kids accidentally turning Sky+ box off when they were trying to turn TV off.

Solution for me was to buy a newer box from eBay - £78. Works perfectly, and is way faster than the old box (plus it has Sky Anytime, whatever that is).

[Bez]

well, it seems that Sky have buckled to pressure and rolled back to the previous software version.

My PVR2 was in standby this AM (I have auto-standby set to off) is now on 5.04.d

Planner took a couple of seconds to build but everything looks good

[jdhx]

My box works now, luckily I had switched to standby last night to allow the possible rollback to download. Now back to 1.31B06/5.04.d. Thanks Sky.

In the meantime I bought a new 250gb HD from Xtended Play. should I install it? Will it give me Sky Anytime, the current one does not, WD 250gb.

Thanks guys

[Bez]