Scrambled Freesat on Secondhand Pace 430n

BenBarrss

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Hi Guys,

I am newish to Satelite TV although previously installed a new Pace 445n Sky digibox at my parents house and everything went well - recieving only free to air TV.

I have just got a secondhand (ebay) Pace 430n, as lots of people rate it. This sky digibox is for my Mother-in-law who wants free to air channels only. Her house (SW London) already had a Sky mini dish plumbed in when she bought it.

I have plugged everything together and it nearly worked perfectly, however, as soon as I select a channel to watch the system goes scrambled.

I assume the dish is aligned correctly as I get all the channel listings populated with the current programme info, plus I can listen to the radio stations. The card that came with the digibox was obviously from south yorkshire (due to channel 101 set to BBC south Yorks), but I thought that even with the card removed I would get everything, but Channel 4 & 5. With or without the card it doesn't work - rebooting between all attempts.

I appear to be within touching distance or am I? Do I just need a code to let me reset the digibox to a "new" state, do I need to do a forced software upgrade - it was sold as having had this done, but who knows.
Do I have to get Sky involved and register for a new card?

Could anyone suggest a way forward. All help would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance,

Ben.
 

Robbo

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Hi, Both channel 4 and channel 5 are both scrambled on a sky dodgibox, you need the card to view them.

Ch4 is also transmitted FTA on a different transponder, which you may be able to have on your box, but it won't be on slot 4 on the EPG, you''d have to manually tune it if it is possible.

Ch5 only transmits scrambled.

If the card has not been used for a while it may have not received its stay alive signal, leave it in the box for a while and it may 'wake up' and let you see ch4 and ch5.


If that does not work, you can buy a new card for £20 from FreesatfromSky. (_http://www.freesatfromsky.co.uk/)
 

BenBarrss

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Hi Robbo71,

Sorry, I may not have complicated it by mentioning that I couldn't get C4 or C5, but my problem is actually all channels are scrambled.

Thanks again,

Ben
 

rolfw

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Do a forced update with the digibox, unplug at the mains at the wall socket, then whilst holding the backup button on the digibox, reconnect the mains, keeping the backup button depressed until all of the lights flash on the digibox.

This may solve the problems.
 

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Do you mean scrambled as in getting an upgrade message from Sky on screen, or scrambled in the picture broken up sense?
If the latter it will be a cable or dish problem.
 

BenBarrss

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Hi Snap,

Hopefully this will explain in more detail.

I get the main channel listings OK. They populate with all the current listings for the shows currently being broadcast. However, once I choose to watch what I would expect to be a free to air channel (BBC1 - 101 or ITV1 - 103, etc), I get about 1/2 seconds worth of the picture - so I know the dish, connection, etc is bringing the signal correctly to the digibox and able to put pictures on the screen. At this point the picture becomes a series of "crazy" lines (like loading an old ZX81 program - if you can remember back that far). After this you can only get this image - even when going back to the channel listings - only a power disconnect reboot can get you back to some form of operation.

This happens with or without the card in the slot.

Hope this helps explain.

Thanks.

Ben
 

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Can you post a screenshot?

I think you have a signal problem, a screen shot would confirm.


Scrambled, means encrypted:-rofl2


If you have a signal problem, first try tweaking the dish a little (mark the current position), if that does not work, try a new LNB, if that doesn't work, try a new cable (wf100 will do nicely). If the problem still exists after that, suspect the box, you may need to try it on someone elses dish.
 

rolfw

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Sounds more like a box fault to me, I've never seen a digibox behave as described because of bad signal, but I guess there's always a first time.:)

Still may be worth trying a forced update.
 

dxsat

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Ben,
I'm very familiar with this fault, my old 430n used to do this regularly, horizontal multicoloured lines filling the screen and graphics. It could be cured by pulling out the power plug and it then would be OK for a few weeks, but would return. I only ever have seen it on the 430n, the Pace 2600 does not suffer the same fault. I saw it on a number of 430n models in Spain.
If it is really persistent you'll have to buy a new receiver, I fear.
 

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Ive seen this problem too. As you say, pulling out the power cord works, but I found an easier way to clear it.....press the interactive button on your remote and then hit sky interactive. After it has loaded the page, press the sky button and the graphic mess will have disappeared. I notice this happens when there is a particularly bad period of reception.
Hope this helps

Mike
 

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I have seen this before too.

A forced update has cleared it but no guarantee it won´t come back in the future
 

BenBarrss

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Hi Guys,

Thanks everybody for the info. I will attempt the forced update on the digbox next time I am around at my mother-in-laws.

If this doesn't cure the problem maybe I will have to throw it up as a duff box to the seller on ebay?

I'll let you know if the update works.

Cheers,

Ben.
 

BenBarrss

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Hi Everyone,

As the setup was at my Mother-in-laws it has been difficult to follow up the various suggestions.

I have taken the initial easy option and taken the box around to someone who has a working system. This has proved there is nothing wrong with the box - work perfectly.

Therefore, I am now left with what was already at the house. I will start looking into dish alignment and LNB problems.

Thanks again,

Regards,

Ben.
 
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