Is my Pace 3100 knackered?

[bignick]

My Thomson 160 which I bought new on eBay has just failed on me (stuck in standby) it looks like I have finally managed to get Thomson to honour it manufacturers warranty and fix the darned thing (which is not easy as I’m in Cyprus!!)

While it’s away I have plugged in a Pace 3100 which I got VERY cheap off eBay – sold as seen. I bought it as ‘something to tinker with’ but now I’m without a sky + system it’s more important that it works.

Here is the problem(s):

I have installed it using two known good feeds (I have a satlook spectrum analyser) and phoned sky to have the box married to my card (sky sports now works ok) and Sky+ activated. However, whenever I hit the record function I get a SYSTEM FAULT message and a telephone number to phone. I have tried various ways to try and record but it always come up with some form of system fault.

Also, to test that the tuners were working I unplugged one of the Coax cables and it continued to work ok, but when I plugged it back in and tried with the other one I got the no signal message. I did still get EPG information such as time and date, which indicates to me that the tuner maybe ok & perhaps it is more to do with the design of the unit…in any case would that take all Sky+ functionality away?

Question is, is the whole box knackered or just the Hard disk – which I don’t mind changing (that’s the tinkering part)?

 

[rolfw]

A hard disk fault will cause the type of problems you describe, try doing the disk housekeeping or full hard disk/system reset.

 

[bignick]

A hard disk fault will cause the type of problems you describe, try doing the disk housekeeping or full hard disk/system reset.

I did a system reset...well I think that is what happened....it displayed a housekeeping message for about 8 seconds and the play/record lights illuminated, then the screen went black and it dropped to standby and rebooted. Is that normal?

Nick

 

[rolfw]

I think that is what it normally does, haven't done one for a while, but it formats the hard drive and reboots the software. If it is the hard drive, then installing a new one (relatively cheap) could solve the problem.

 

[bignick]

I think that is what it normally does, haven't done one for a while, but it formats the hard drive and reboots the software. If it is the hard drive, then installing a new one (relatively cheap) could solve the problem.

If it was a standard PC I would expect it to take longer than 8 secs to format, but I don't know how the sky boxes do it!

 

[rolfw]

It probably doesn't format as such, probably just wipes the memory of what is supposed to be on it and starts from scratch. So did it make any difference?

 

[bignick]

It probably doesn't format as such, probably just wipes the memory of what is supposed to be on it and starts from scratch. So did it make any difference?

Nope, its still buggered:mad:

 

[rolfw]

Don't suppose you can borrow a hard drive to try in it?

 

[bignick]

Don't suppose you can borrow a hard drive to try in it?

I'm looking at that at the moment m8. Don't know if it will be one of the 'recommended' models though, but worth a crack.

Cheers

Nick

 

[bignick]

Got hold of an old hard disk today for testing purposes and fitted it. Seems to work fine now .
Thanks for the help
Cheers
Nick

 

[bignick]

Got hold of an old hard disk today for testing purposes and fitted it. Seems to work fine now .
Thanks for the help
Cheers
Nick

SPOKE TOO SOON!
I fitted the hard disk drive..I think a seagate 40Gb unit. Tried recording and all seemed well so I put 2 programmes on to record to test if the tuners were ok.
I've just tryed to playback, but it plays for about 5 seconds then give a no signal message on both programmes.
I've now tried to record one and watch one with a similar result(the watch programme was fine though). Right now I'm trying to record what I'm watching to see if that helps.
Any ideas anyone?
Cheers

Nick