sky card - again!

[storeysinfrance]

Hello to one and all

 

Many of you seem to know a darned site more about Sky cards than I do and I was wondering if my current little conundrum has a solution?

 

In short, my card and box have, since Christmas, gone on the blink – to the extent that currently I’m on a diet of dvd’s only!

 

Just before Christmas, all was working fine but gradually, programmes would simply close down – happily watching the news (or something) and suddenly, the connection would be lost.

 

I’ve tried all the usual remedies – such as new batteries in the remote, switching off and starting again, unplugging at the mains and firing up again with the card both in and out – but nothing now seems to work at all.

 

To the extent that I cannot activate the little red light to turn it to yellow thereby showing that something’s about to occur – and therefore cannot get the Sky welcome screen or anything like that. All pretty depressing really. 

 

My son-in-law has suggested that it’s probably the card that’s at fault but, given that I have no uk address having lived here full-time for 2 years now, am not entirely certain of how I go about getting a fresh card (stupid maybe, but would appreciate advice if this is, indeed, the problem area). All I want is things like the news and regular programmes – premium channels / sport channels of no great interest… further to which, about fifteen months ago, I let my original Sky subscription lapse – so wondering if this has any bearing on it at all?

 

Secondly, am about to move a little further south (near to Brantome)… I know that Sky reception there is fine and dandy so that’s not an issue… however, can anyone recommend anyone in that area for help with the dish set-up (since set-up here was a nightmare and only resolved by the kindness of a LF Forum member who spent an afternoon here with his gadgets to get it all aligned correctly). Or… is there a local store down that way who’d be able to not just help with the dish set-up but also with whom one can / could activate a Sky subscription – if that’s what it takes?

 

Any advice on any of the above would be most welcome.

 

Many thanks

Neil.

[Baz]

Hi Neil,

You should be able to receive all FTA programmes without a card, this will cover all BBC transmissions, Sky News, shopping channels etc. The fact you cannot receive anything means it is not your card but possibly either your Digibox, Dish allignment, LNB or your connections. As you say you about to move,  it will make sense to wait until then before reinstalling.. There should be no difficulty in having your equipment installed by any French company just telling them that you want to watch Sky Astra programmes.

In the meantime, if you know anyone in your Area with a digibox, ask them if you can try your box on their system as this will confirm if your box is working.

Baz

[Mazan]

The card has no bearing on reception. None at all. The card serves only to decode the channels to which you are entitled. In your case it does ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Remove the card and your box will work just as well (or badly). If your card does not have a yellow house on a dark blue background then it is no longer valid anyway and can be thrown away.

Your phrase "all was working fine but gradually, programmes would simply close down – happily watching the news (or something) and suddenly, the connection would be lost." is not clear. What "connection" are you talking about? What do you mean by "close down"? You nearly always get some sort of error message on-screen in case of problems: what mesage did you see? You need to be much more precise in your description.

Can you get the digibox out of standby by pushing the on-off button on the front panel? If not it is probably time for a new box. But you should test your box on someone else's (Sky) dish before doing so. Try someone else's digibox on your dish also as you could have a cable or LNB fault.

[storeysinfrance]

thank you for your comments and advice

yes - shall wait until i move - only a week or so to go now...

mazan - sorry if unclear but actually... thats what happened!: watching programme this or the next and without warning, it'd just disapear... very odd... (thats what i meant by connection going) and no error message at all... just back to a blank screen... at that point the little red light came back on and try as i could, haven't been able to get it back to a yellow one since... do you think this means the box has had it?

oh - and the card i have is as you describe...

neil.

[Mazan]

without warning, it'd just disapear... very odd... (thats what i meant by connection going) and no error message at all... just back to a blank screen... at that point the little red light came back on and try as i could, haven't been able to get it back to a yellow one since... do you think this means the box has had it?

If it was my box I would be making an appointment at the crematorium.

[Robbie34]

A possibility could be the lnb.  Sometimes, when they are faulty, you will lose all of the channels polarised in one direction, e.g. all vertically polarised channels.  You can also lose channels on low band and it will be fine on the higher band channels until eventually you will lose all channels.   The only way to check this without replacing the lnb is to substitute the digibox.  You don't need a Sky box to check as an ordinary box will get all of the free to air channels such as BBC, Sky News and ITV 3.