noisy sky+ box

[revjames]

Sky+ box has recently started making a lot of noise. Sounds like a cooling fan running but still very loud. Also takes a lot of time to turn on in the mornings. Sometimes you have to wait half an hr before its on!

Any ideas?

 

[ianmacd]

Hard disk at a guess. Is it under warranty still?

 

[Robojin]

^ My thought too.

If out of warranty you can replace the HD yourself, loads of tutorials on the web

 

[ianmacd]

^ My thought too. If out of warranty you can replace the HD yourself, loads of tutorials on the web

Indeed, search for copy+.

 

[revjames]

Thanks guys as I sit here its fine, nice and quiet, was making a heck of a racket this morning. cant complain got it off ebay for

 

[~Sparky~]

Hmm my folks had exactly the same problem..... and yes it is the fans you are hearing...... they had Sky out countless number of times to hear it and they said it can be fixed from there head office by sending a signal to the dish.... so signal sent supposidly and still the same problem, then.... the box would start freezing and take, as you said 30mins to come on, sometimes longer..... the box was becomming a nightmare to be honest, i had sky + in my room at the time and never had any hasstle atal..... next problem the recordings would keep failing or only record half the program...... we are not the only ones that are having problems with the Sky HD box also of customers i go to have the same problem.........

there solution was simple...... throw the Sky box in the bin and fire in Virgin media....... never had a problem to this day..... and i advise anyone who is having problems with sky to throw there boxes out too....... Sky in my oppinion is SH!T

 

[revjames]

throw the Sky box in the bin and fire in Virgin media....... never had a problem to this day..... and i advise anyone who is having problems with sky to throw there boxes out too....... Sky in my oppinion is SH!T

Not an option here unfortunately - I take it you need cable for that?

 

[ianmacd]

Hmm my folks had exactly the same problem..... and yes it is the fans you are hearing...... they had Sky out countless number of times to hear it and they said it can be fixed from there head office by sending a signal to the dish.... so signal sent supposidly and still the same problem, then.... the box would start freezing and take, as you said 30mins to come on, sometimes longer..... the box was becomming a nightmare to be honest, i had sky + in my room at the time and never had any hasstle atal..... next problem the recordings would keep failing or only record half the program...... we are not the only ones that are having problems with the Sky HD box also of customers i go to have the same problem.........there solution was simple...... throw the Sky box in the bin and fire in Virgin media....... never had a problem to this day..... and i advise anyone who is having problems with sky to throw there boxes out too....... Sky in my oppinion is SH!T

I am glad you can hear the difference between a HD failing and the fan. Care to venture a guess at why a failing fan will make it take 30 mins to boot?

All the problems you describe are most likely due to a failing disk.

I believe (depending on the model), the largest you can put in a std sky+ box is 300GB but there are plenty of people that do upgrade HD's. I have a 1TB (have done for 2 years) in my HD box and upgraded the PSU recently as it started getting flakey too.

 

[~Sparky~]

It wasnt me that said it was the fans or the HDD, it was the many different sky installers that said it was the fans and also the sky head office said it was the fans..... there the experts after all

 

[Robojin]

It wasnt me that said it was the fans or the HDD, it was the many different sky installers that said it was the fans and also the sky head office said it was the fans..... there the experts after all

I'll try to be kind about the Sky installers, 95% are clueless (see I've been kind to 5% of em) after all Sky don't pay for rocket scientists, they pay peanuts so........

The noise is most likely the actuator arm trying to find the data sector by referencing calibration sectors, it will clatter around until it succeeds or gives up after x number of retries, hence the long delay to start from cold

It's possible that fan barring wear, will account for noise too, but would not likely slow down the boot, and you can prove quite quickly by stopping the fan by temporarily inserting something in the blades (non conductive idally ray )

Now it's true that heat will reduce the reliability of HDD's, so it's possibly good idea to clean the fan blades now and again, something like the thin nozzle on the hover tube will do the trick and short bursts with suction