New Sky q box installed a week ago and is failing

[Dave-H]

I had a new Sky q box installed a week ago and it is failing already, screen keeps going blank, load static type noise when changing channels and to top it all lost connection to wifi, spoke to engineer he couldnt do any thing with it.

Cheap and nasty equipment

[PandJ2020 · Accepted solution]

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@Dave-H wrote:

Cheap and nasty equipment

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With millions of installs that would seem a tad harsh.

Not sure how other customers can help?

[Chodley]

You had an engineer visit after you had these audio & video issues?

Or the installer couldn't fix the wifi and the other problems showed up later?

[Rothie+Norman]

1 Sky Q box failed in October.  (Worked fine for years)

2 Replacement failed (noisy hard drive/ frozen) at the start of December.  

3. Third box failed after less than 2 weeks. (same issues)

Is there a faulty batch of hard drives in these boxes?

Sky; your equipment failures mean that you are not providing the service that I am paying a lot of money for! 

[Rothie+Norman]

1 Sky Q box failed in October.  (Worked fine for years)

2 Replacement failed (noisy hard drive/ frozen) at the start of December.  

3. Third box failed after less than 2 weeks. (same issues)

Is there a faulty batch of hard drives in these boxes?

Sky; your equipment failures mean that you are not providing the service that I am paying a lot of money for! 

[Rothie+Norman]

21 Dec, Sky engineers came and replaced the dish, etc,  cables, and ran Ethernet cables from router to sky Q main and mini box.  Within hours of their departure, main q box froze.  It continues to freeze several times a day.  Sky/open reach coming to instal full fibre to the house, but I can't see how this will cure the box freezing issue.  When the box freezes we also loose the internet boost it should provide, so broadband is rubbish, Q boxes (4 so far) are hopeless, and we are paying a small fortune.

[Chodley]

4 faulty boxes on the trot is astonishing

[Rothie+Norman]

It seems unlikely that we should be unlucky enough to have so many faulty boxes, yet I can't think of any other explanation.  There's nothing new in the house to interfere with the box, which is now hard wired ethernet cable to the router, and yet it still keeps freezing. All software has been updated, hard drive reset, standby status changed; everything we've tried has not worked.  it is very frustrating, trying to watch a live sporting event and suddenly it freezes.  Switch off and back on again gets things going again but it shouldn't be necessary to do that several times a day. How will fibre to my house make this better? It will cost me more.  

[Laing1]

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@Rothie+Norman wrote:

It seems unlikely that we should be unlucky enough to have so many faulty boxes, yet I can't think of any other explanation.  There's nothing new in the house to interfere with the box, which is now hard wired ethernet cable to the router, and yet it still keeps freezing. All software has been updated, hard drive reset, standby status changed; everything we've tried has not worked.  it is very frustrating, trying to watch a live sporting event and suddenly it freezes.  Switch off and back on again gets things going again but it shouldn't be necessary to do that several times a day. How will fibre to my house make this better? It will cost me more.  

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@Rothie+Norman is the box plugged into  a extension cable such as a 4 gang extension cable or anything like that as we have seen on the forum before prblems with some of them just a thought seeing as its unusual to have s many boxes

[Chodley]

Ok so this will be a weird experiment but since live TV has no dependency on the internet, try having nothing switched on except the main Q box (no minis) and don't connect the ethernet - watch live TV and see if it happens then.

[Rothie+Norman]

Thanks @Laing1 

The box was plugged into a surge protecting extension.  I have since replaced the power cables and plugged it directly into the wall socket; it still keeps freezing.  

There's nothing new in the house that could interfere with the boxes.  Now that they are connected to the router by cables I assume removes any wi-fi interference.  

Are the boxes essentially computers?  Hard disk, motherboard etc? They should be able to operate in normal household conditions without freezing.   I have been with Sky almost since the beginning.  If this can't be fixed, then I will have to take my custom elsewhere.

[Chodley]

Did you see my post above?

Yes they are basically linux computers

[Rothie+Norman]

@Chodley sorry I missed your previous post.  I will give it a go and report back.

There was a period when I accidently sent a duff box away with the viewing card in it.  For about 5 days we had no viewing card so just had basic TV through the box, and it didn't freeze. Once we received the new viewing card, the new box started frezing.

Why would a linux computer freeze? 

[Chodley]

They don't often. Usually related to hardware resources getting overloaded.

[kathadam]

i also have taken delivery of a new Sky Q box recently as the old one kept on freezing. Unfortunately the new box recieved less than a week ago now freezes too - so far today it has happened on 3 seperate occasions. It is difficult to find someone to discuss this with at Sky, i guess i will just have to order a new box!