My sky box is broken, it keeps showing "No satellite signal received". What can I do?

Question

My sky box is broken, it keeps showing "No satellite signal received". I spoke with sky and after 45 mins on the phone and various checks they told me that they will need to send an engineer to fix or replace the box as it is broken. the service will cost £65!!

I am thinking of getting a Sky box+ from e-bay...much more cheaper. Will it work as a replacement? What can I do? Will it work with the viewing card?

Thanks

Answer 1

Try unplugging it, and leave for about 30 seconds before plugging back in and switching it on again, not a guaranteed cure, but often works when my digital recorder has no signal! Good luck!

Answer 2

Check all your connections are in correctly, particularly the one at the box.

Bad weather, including thick cloud can affect the signal. The dish may have moved. Do you have trees blocking the signal? They may have grown since you had your box. And here’s a little trick if the unplugging for 60 seconds doesn’t work.

Press the services button. Then ‘4’ for system setup. Press ‘0’ ‘1’ then select. (nothing will happen until you press select. You will be presented with a screen with several options. Choose ‘LNB setup’. Go down to LNB power supply and turn it off, then 22 KHz command and turn it off. Go down and save settings. Then exit the setup. Go back and turn them back on and follow the onscreen instructions. If you have the ‘phone line connected, there is no need to report the new setup. Just exit out. If this doesn’t work, try again unplugging for a minute and go through it again. (Remember when you plug back in you have to allow it to reset itself- give it 30 seconds or so.)

If you still have problems, again go into services, option ‘4’ system setup but this time go down to ‘new installation’. Press this and  press select until the ‘now scanning’ dialogue comes up. Allow it to scan to find your channels.

If non of this works try unplugging for 60 seconds, hold in the ‘backup’ button on the front of the box and plug back in while holding in this button. Keep the button held in until all the lights on the front of the box come on. There should be red, yellow or amber and green, I think. Then release the button and you should have a screen telling you the software is updating and it will take 10 minutes to complete. Allow this to complete.

None of these suggestions will work if the problem is caused by bad weather, something like a tree blocking the signal or misaligned dish.

I have explained these procedures to engineers and on the ‘phone and they were not aware of them (They said). My box is insured and I think that they don’t want to tell you about this so they can charge for a new box or repair. These usually solve most problems.

Last minute thought- I'd forgotten this one as most of the above work usually but you might try taking out the viewing card for a minute or so as this can sometimes reset the box.

Answer 3

This is a very common problem. The easy quick way to find out if you need an engineer is to unplug the whole shabang, wait for a few minutes, then plug everything back in. This usually sorts the problem. If not, your next move is to check the dish for debris. Sometimes some moss or bits of leaves get stuck on the dish and interrupt the signal.. If you still have no luck, phone the satelite provider, or go on-line and check if they have any technical issues. If none of the solutions work, you may need to crumble and request an engineer...

Answer 4

First make sure all aerial F connectors at box and wall are securely connected - then,

Press services on your sky remote then 4 on keypad then 6 on keypad does it show any signal strength or signal quality? and does it show a transport stream and if so does it state if it's locked?

If none show trying turning sky off then remove the mains plug from the wall socket also remove your sky viewing card from it's slot and leave switched off for five minutes - now plug in, insert card and enable sky box, give it 2 minutes to find listings.

If still no go - go back to first part of this check routine and see if any signal there if not either your dish has been knocked/blown out of alignment or the box is fritzed.

I would find out which first as it will be no good buying a 'new' box if the dish is out of kilter.

Answer 5

OK, DONT PANIC JUST YET, SKY COULD BE WRONG. MY SKY BOX SAYS THAT ALL THE TIME.

HAVE YOU SWITCHED IT OFF AND BACK ON AGAIN ?

ALSO WHEN IT RAINS HEAVEY WE LOSE SIGNAL TOO.

I HAVE HAD MY SKY BOX FOR ABOUT 7 YEARS WITH NO PROBLEM AND IT IT USED MOST OF THE DAI. AND FREQUENTLY SAY THAT AND THEN SORTS IT SELF OUT.

XXNIKXX

HOPE THIS HELPS

Answer 6

we sometimes get that it could just b the weather

turn it off and wait a little

take your box next door, or to a nearby friends house, and see if it works on their setup.

If it does then its either the cable, LNB, or dish alignment.

If it doesn't then it's the box.

Answer 7

OMG!!!! No way...

The same thing happened to us too!

Our Sky is like that too and we spent aa bloody hour on the phone to a women giving us random orders and it turned out that she couldn't fix the problem.

I think that £65 for an engineer to fix it is quite pricey as we just got our new telly!!

Such a coincidence

Answer 8

It could be your dish that has somehow moved position and not the box.

The viewing cards are tied into the box you have, so will not work on another box, they used to do, but they changed this, I think to stop people taking the cards abroad.

Try and find a local T.V engineer, Sky use some local engineers anyway to install their equipment, and some specialise in satellite box repair, which would be cheaper.

Answer 9

firstly, turn off the skybox and unplug the box from the mains (to protect from electric shock), then check and make sure that all the wires going into the back of the box are in tightly. Check the scart leads are not loose and make sure that the cable from the dish to the box is screwed tightly into the back of the box. If you try all this and it doesnt work try to re-boot the sky box. Simply unplug it without turning it off, then after about 30 seconds plug it back in and using your remote press the SKY button, if that fails then there is a problem with the sky box. I'm not sure about buying a new one from ebay as there may be a problem with your dish and you will still have to get their engineers out.

Answer 10

i have a sky+ box, no i would getting a + box from e-bay, get it trough sky cuse with a + box you need to have a second cable run from your saterlte dish (they have to put a new reciver on your dish) so you can record and watch 2 differnet channels at the same time. just get virgin media to quote you, and then get sky to quote against them! thats what we did ! got it really cheap!