Fault on Samsung HD Sky Box

psbridge

I've had lots of incidents of my Samsung box crashing when scrolling around in the menus. The usual remedy is to pull out the mains plug, count to 50 and reboot it! I got fed up yesterday when it froze yet again and as it is now only 2 months old, I called the Sky Service people. I don't actually think that the engineer believed what a pain it had been, he suggested that various leads should not be cleated together for tidyness, and that the unit should have a shelf to itself on the TV stand to avoid overheating. All these things have now been altered. However, one thing he spotted was that "input 2" had little or no signal showing on the bars in the installation menu. As far as I can recall, it's been like that since installation as I thought that maybe it was measuring the input from say another decoder. He rectified this somehow and left me to get back to Sky if things didn't improve.
Being curious, I went back into this menu when the unit was repositioned on a single shelf and discovered "no Signal on input 2" again. I assumed initially that this must be a connection disturbed on the twin aerial input so took off "input 2". The unit still worked, so I removed "input 1". The receiver stopped working. I then tried the connector from "2" into "1", it worked, I tried "1" into "2", still no signal showing on "2".
So I'm pretty certain that both LNB's work as far as their plugs. Wriggled the receiver around a little on the shelf, signal now returns to"2"! Conclusion, either a dicky termination socket or a high resistance connection onto the pcb inside the set.
Have I got a point and does it matter about the signal strenth on "input 2", and could this be the cause of the lock-ups?
Incidently, still no upgrade to the HD menu system, I am still using the Sky-Plus type layout.

Thanks

Peter

Added information 21/8/09. The HD box is left on S/B overnight as per Sky requirements. I went into S/B last night, switched on this morning and checked the signal, no grey bar visible for "input 2" again. Switched off at the mains and rebooted, identical grey bars on both inputs! Back into S/b, no signal on "2", rebooted as before, signal restored.
So, does this menu really reflect signal input on both LNB's, or does it give up monitoring "input 2" after a few minutes? Should the box be rebooted every time it is used to make sure of an input on "2", or have we got ourselves a software bug? It is all very well Sky denying that there is anything wrong with the Samsung boxes until the warranty runs out, you are then forced into a maintenance contract to cover yourself against it continuing playing up!

A bit more to add! I've spoken to another HD Box owner, not Samsung as he already has the new menu system, and he confirms that he has white bars on signal strength and quality on both inputs "1" and "2" all the time. At his suggestion I tried recording two HD programmes at the same time which should be the maximum test I could give the box, all recorded fine in HD quality.
Conclusion: There must be a software bug in my Samsung Box, possibly related to the lock-ups when working within the menu system.

jasonx1

can you watch a channel and record another . ?

also go to service the settings then type in o then 1 then select on remote for old egp only for new its 0.0.1.select and find the single feed mode is turned off ..

the bar on both tuners should be half way or full on both if not then you want sky to fix it now before the warrity finish . a.s.a.p

hope that helps you .

psbridge

Yes, I can watch 1 channel and record another or record 2 x HD channels at the same time. On this evidence it seems that the box works OK apart from the screen freezes whilst in the menu system which started this all up! Leaving the unexplained menu screen freezes alone at present, on switch on after being on S/B overnight, there is absolutely no signal strength and nil quality on "input 2". We have full scale strength and around 90% quality on "1". Swopping the incoming leads over from the Sky dish makes no difference, you would have thought that input "2" would have been full scale and "1" dead.
However if you go into the menu, at some point during the viewing day, we do get an indication of FScale signal on "2" but only 70% quality which seems to be chopping between 70 - 90% of the scale. Once again swopping the leads back makes no alteration. I haven't been able to nail how long it takes to chivvy up the "input 2" reading!
I've certainly still got the old epg and can access the technical menu, the nearest I have to any reference to single feed is the actual LNB type. We have "standard" which I think is correct. It lists 9.75 as low band and 10.6 as high band, power supply is "on" and 22kHz is "on".
Irinically, someone phoned me up from Sky yesterday to sell me a "protection policy" to cover future faults after the warranty expires in 10 months time. I fell about laughing and said "yes please"! The offer was quickly withdrawn when he realised that we were experiencing some odd bugs in the box. He advises speaking to Sky Technical who have testing software which they can test the unit with over the phone to find if there is a traceable bug, or it is "teething problems"!

Cheers

Peter

Answer from Sky Technical added:

Whenever a programme is called for on the HD box, the 1st call will take up on "input 1". If there is a subsequent request i.e. a programmed recording on a different channel, this will take up on "input 2". Therefore you will only see both scales working when 2 different channels are in use at the same time! As to the epg lockups etc, these "may" reduce when the new software is downloaded. I'm sure that technician said that these would restart again in Sep. Sounds like the Service Engineer who called on Thu was trying to baffle me with incorrect science!

rolfw

Appears that you have major issues with this box, get Sky to replace it.

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jasonx1

i found the answer after been one 2 callouts fixing these

do you have a sky plus connected as a mutiroom if yes do these options
put sky hd in standby go to the sky plus and press services 4.0.1 then select on remote go t6o lnb setting and select lnb to off and save turn sky plus off on remote then wait 2 mins trun back on and play around to get the signal going again on all channels now on the sky hd press service .settings 0.0.1 select for new epg for old epg press serivce 4.0.1 select and do a planner rebuild only then wait 5 mins

all should be working on signal bar

if its just sky hd only on the dish select service setting 0.0.1 select then planner rebuild if its a old epg select 4.0.1 select then planner rebuild wait 5 mins that should sort you out mate