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Do they have a habit of just packing up?  Mine freezes quite a bit (every few days) and I have to switch it off at the plug to get it back again.  It's also clicking a lot which I guess is the hard drive but it's not sounding healthy.   Trouble is, I can't get it to replicate the problem when I phone the tech department.  Also when I plug it back in again, it does work ok for a few more days.

Do they have an expected life?

How old is yours Graham?  Mine's a couple of years old now and starting to play up.  We've noticed anything we try to record now we can't watch on playback as the sound cuts out every few seconds.

mine keeps freezeing when i make it do stuff in a hurry and confusing its workings

things like watching a recording recording another program and changing channel at the same time

turn it on and off sorts it out

You can replce the hard drive yourself.  My brother's was playing up, and he searched about online and found instructions for replacing it.  He bought a 350GB one (for about £75 a year or so ago, so they'll be cheaper now).  Works perfectly and it's got a biot more storage space than the 80GB one!!

I guess yours is out of warranty?

do you know where he bought it from?

does anybody know the memory size in the sky hi/def boxes against the sky plus boxes

Mine should be in warranty still, I'm sure it's only about 9 months old.

It does seem to be when I do stuff in a hurry I think, that sounds familiar Ironside.

Not sure about sticking a new hard drive in myself - is it like a computer?  I can handle them, ruining the Sky + and my life would be on a downward slope :D

just nicked this from elsewhere - Sky HD: *300 gb hard drive - 160gb for customer recordings , 140gb reserved for future use

'normal' sky+ box has a 160 GB drive installed, however only 80 GB is available for personal storage

 remember watching a watchdog programme on problems with Sky+ boxes.

More info here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/services/services_20061114.shtml

Geo

Yeah mine has been giving me jib for about 4 months keeps jumping and the sound goes off when I play back programs. They run me about saying turn this off and check this wire and leave it for 2 mins then come back always earning from my phone call to them,I demanded they come out and fix it but they say they charge me £100 for spanner boy to come out and fix my box that im paying £40 a month for, I canceled my contract and they just don't care, Ive lost the battle but I will win the war.

Just replaced mine, was going to cost £65 for an engineer + repairs on top or I could just replace it for £50, 80 gig of free space compared with 20 gig on old system. HD was silly price!

Where did you get the replacement Dik?  From Sky?

you can also buy the boxes on ebay, second hand mind but still. All you'd need to do is call Sky to have them match your viewing card with your new box.

I got them to replace mine just before the warranty ran out, it was starting to show the signs you have mentioned.

But regardless I would hate to be without it now...it is my second fave baby after my laptop, my children aren't too far behind though.

I have bog standard Sky and mine keeps freezing, I have to switch it off at the plug and then switch it back on again.

Strangely enough it only happens overnight.

They do the software updates overnight.  This is often the problem, and I had a problem (not the only one) for quite a while after a major software upgrade (for Sky+ only I'd guess...?).  If you are outside the warranty period, just disconnect your box from the telephone socket.  You won't get any upgraded software, but you'll not have the problems.  Again, this all refers to Sky+ - someone else will be able to tell you about a standard Sky box.

Oh, and get Sky+, it's brilliant.  Once you've got it, you can't live without it.

Here are the hard drive upgrade kits I was on about;

http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/hard-disk-upgrade-250gb-drive-p-47.html?osCsid=758951f8bef5e0d33d0e813926b607fb

FAQ here: http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/faq.php

(No affiliation with the above site, there are probably loads of others, I just found them on Google)

I think they were selling reconditioned boxes at one point last year but not at the moment. I had a word with a colleague who does the finance's for the service and repair if he comes up with anything of interest i will let you know.

Graham if you are under the year you are under warranty, so just demand a service call and a replacement box. There has been issues with some Sky + boxes i know that but they are pushing for improvements to the quality all the time.

As for cost of service calls it is £65 and that is as much as anyone should be charged, there should be no parts and labour charge.

Would love it, but can't afford it!  Soon as I can, I will!

Sky+ is the service that lets you record up to 80 hours of television without the need for tapes or disks. It allows you to watch what you want, when you want. You can record a whole series at the touch of a button. You can even pause, rewind and fast forward live TV.

Wish mine did this it would be handy for the horse racing and national lottery.  rotflmfao

Yeah, but in order to get it for £50 you have to physically say, that you will switch to cable, otherwise the operator cannot quote you that price.

I would love to, but not allowed as i have the 2 box thing.

i have 3 sky boxes in my house one of which is sky+ this is the maximium the dish can do

i have also got the sky cover insurance policy which covers all 3 boxes and the dish so is worth it (might not have taken it for just the sky+ box)