In article
, Fat
richard writes
A bit of background:

We have SKY+ downstairs and a "narmal" SKY box upstiairs for which we
pay for multi room and we even have both connected to the telephone
line and both have genuine viewing cards, in effect we are "model" Sky
customers - presumably not perfect models as we don't have HD.

We have had this set up for about 4 years.

The SKY+ box downstairs has started to go a bit goofy and failed
completely last night.

I have got it to come on now but if I try to use any of the "+"
features I get a message stating "A Sky+ error ocurred. Press SELECT
to restart Press BACK UP to continue without Sky+ functionality.

A restart is effectively a full reboot and takes a good few minutes,
as per a normal restart from power off / on. If the box is turned off
using the remote, each time it comes on we have to wait for the box to
reboot.

I have checked all the cables are in correctly (all taken out and put
back in) and I have aslo checked the cable runs back to the dish and
all "appear" fine. The multi room "normal" box is performing normally.

The Sky+ box is, I assume a bit ancient now, it is a Thompson DS1 8210
I am guessing the model as that is the closest I can find to a model
number on the bottom.

Am I to assume the inevitable, that the box needs to be thrown into my
wheelie bin ?

If the inevitable is likely can anyone suggest the best course of
action.

Our options a

Buy another + box (we do use it a lot for recording) - so brand new /
second hand / where is the best place to go ?

Bin the + box, bring the normal one downstairs and cancel the multi
room and "+" and save 20 quid a month. We don't really use the
upsatirs one that much.

We are in a Virgin cable area. We already have 20meg broadband + phone
with them (and the 20 meg is VERY reliable, no loss of connection and
rarely below 18.5 meg on a really bad day). I hear all sorts of tales
of how good the Virgin on demand stuff is, and that teir version of
"+" allows 2 channels to be recorded and watch a third unlike Sky. So
the third oiption is to ride out the Sky contract for a month and then
switch.

When we had a problem with our dish a year or so back (Actually a tree
in sight of the dish) I was not impressed with Skys attitude (they
assured me the signal strength proved the tree was NOT the problem and
an engineer with charge was required, I chopped the tree down instead
which worked). I discussed my options with them after this and they
were completely unintersted in offering any sort of sweetener to stay
with Sky, I guess this has not changed.

So - if anyone is still reading - any offers to any of the points
above would be most welcome.

Phone Sky, tell them your box is faulty, they'll probably run you
through a load of stuff, like switching on and off, planner rebuild
etc.... Once you've established that none of these work, they'll arrange
a call out for you. It'll cost £65 but that includes a replacement box
or anything else that needs doing.

If you don't want to pay the £65, you can tell Sky you aren't prepared
to pay that and you'd rather just cancel and switch to Virgin. Chances
are they'll either offer you a reduced cost/free call out, or transfer
you to cancellations, who may well offer you the reduced cost/free call
out. Of course there's also the possibility that they'll just let you
cancel.

Certainly worth a phone call though, I'd have thought.
--
Sean Black