topic Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night in Sky Q

New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

Jinxy999 — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 10:30:29 GMT

Hi, I hope someone can help with this.

I have a new (3 wk old) Sky Q box after the hard drive failed in the old one.

Quite often it fails at night. I will switch on a mini box in a bedroom early in the morning and get the usual connectivity or Sky Q box errors. When I go to the Q box and switch it on I get the messages you get after switching it off and on again for a reset.

I dont have to do anything, just wait and it powers up and works fine and all the mini boxes connect again really quickly.

Can anyone help me with whats going on or any diagnostics that I could look at to work it out?

I have had connectivity issues with the old box as I have a BT router (and not sky) but don't think this is the issue.

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

xenon81 — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 10:45:47 GMT

If this occurs between 02:45-05:45, the main box will have gone into Eco mode. You won't be able to use the mini boxes during this time. You can disable Eco mode in the settings and see if it solves the problem.

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

Jinxy999 — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 11:31:42 GMT

Many thanks for your response, it probaby would have been between those times and Eco mode was set.

If I use 'Active' mode, described as: 'Your box will automatically go into standby mode when not in use' will switching on a Mini box activate it?

Or should I just set it to None?

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

Noah4x4 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 06:55:29 GMT

This Eco (default) issue blighted me for a considerable time. I thought it had something to do with SkyQ struggling with unstable dual-band networks. The solution to that is turn off the 2.4Ghz channel in SkyQ but that didn't fix startup before 0545 issue (as my EE WiFi7 network is wholly stable).

I've now switched from Eco to None via Settings> SetUp> Preferences. Seems to cure the wake up from deep sleep problem and still goes into standby via switch off via remote controller. Eco might save a little electricity, but is a nuisance.

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

Chodley — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 07:49:59 GMT

@Noah4x4 wrote:
This Eco (default) issue blighted me for a considerable time. I thought it had something to do with SkyQ struggling with unstable dual-band networks. The solution to that is turn off the 2.4Ghz channel in SkyQ but that didn't fix startup before 0545 issue (as my EE WiFi7 network is wholly stable).

I've now switched from Eco to None via Settings> SetUp> Preferences. Seems to cure the wake up from deep sleep problem and still goes into standby via switch off via remote controller. Eco might save a little electricity, but is a nuisance.

Q can only use 2.4GHz with 3rd party wifi so if you switched that off, I'm surprised it was able to connect at all?

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

Noah4x4 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:25:55 GMT

I might be wrong, but I believe.....

A SkyQ box needs a WiFi connection to receive TV listings, downloads and Apps etc. Fair enough.

However, I was told that it broadcasts its own 2.4Ghz SIDD network to connect the Sky stream from its dish to any SkyQ mini boxes. Makes sense, as after all, you can receive the signal from your dish even if no local Internet. This might also explain why you need to "pair" the two boxes in addition to connecting both boxes to one's own network. User interface logic also begs the question, why is there a setting permitting connection to only 2.4Ghz or to only 5 GHz if only 2.4Ghz is possible. Frankly, I'm unsure, but the network specialist that gave me these tips has helped me resolve my regular Sky connection woes.

The boxes certainly work with only 5Ghz connected (unless they default to dual band). But now that I have discovered my issue was the Eco mode problem and not an unstable network, I have voluntarily reverted to dual band. All is now hunky dory. But worth trying both solutions if you can't pin down the issue.

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

PandJ2020 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:38:56 GMT

@Noah4x4 wrote:
However, I was told that it broadcasts its own 2.4Ghz SIDD network to connect the Sky stream from its dish to any SkyQ mini boxes.

No, it's 5GHz channel 36, 80MHz.

The 2.4GHz is the main box connection to a non-Sky router.

Re: New Sky Q Box needs restarting often at night

Chodley — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 18:55:19 GMT

It allows both because it will do 5GHz to a Sky router.

why... well that's anyone's guess.