Sky Q box crashing & box fan spinning loudly - EE Broadband

[Pete-max]

Sorry, I forgot to say I had the same issue and Sky give me a router which I fitted on my landing and that solved the problem. Took a few goes to get the signal but works fine. Sky will come out and do this if you say you are thinking of leaving them. 

[wadinga]

Hi Helmac,

It appears there is something in EE SuperHub Ethernet data output which crashes the Q box. Will your Q Box operate through Wi-Fi direct from the hub at all? Your second problem is getting the Sky mini box to maintain contact. My mini suffers overheating problems which are alleviated by standing it on legs to allow airflow. How well did yours work before? Can Ethernet cables or even using a mains transmission system (data piggy-backed on 240V) take Ethernet output from the Q box  (unpolluted by EE hub data) to your mini box?

I have found the EE Wi-Fi extenders baulky at getting them to sync to the Superhub at all, sometimes needing an Ethernet link to achieve this. Whether their Wi-Fi will penetrate your walls better than Sky I don't know. Idris never has these problems in the adverts!😟

Good luck!

wadinga 

[RuralPirate]

Hi Wadinga

When my EE wi-fi boosters were set up it was with the ethernet, next to the hub, once they are connected you remove the ethernet and they automatically connect to wi-fi, hope this is helpful

[wadinga]

Hi RuralPirate,

Yes that's how I did mine too.

wadinga

[Helmac]

Hi Wadinga

the whole system worked seamlessly with the old BT hub and discs. The new system has to be Ethernet due to the walls. The main Sky Q box will link to the hub but the mini dishes won't connect to the main box. Was on the phone to EE for ages today. The net result is that they are going to send me a new Ethernet cable which will make no difference but was their best suggestion 😜.  Also performed a full reset on the hub and knocked out one of the WiFi plus extenders and took me hours to get it re-linked after doing a factory reset. 

All in got nowhere !!! Seems that both Sky and EE know there is an issue but no-one has a solution as yet! 

Helmac

[wadinga]

Hi Helmac,

I have seen somewhere EE are now sending BT hubs to new customers, indicating the EE Superhub is seriously flawed, as we surmise. Can you be clear, are the "Mini Dishes" you refer to, Sky mini boxe(s) or EE extenders? My present understanding is that you only ever had Ethernet between the hub and the main SKY Q box and you always needed Wi-Fi beyond this to mini box(es) because walls made further Ethernet extension impossible.

I suggested maybe you can use Powerline communication units PCU to send data through the mains 240V system eg Tp-Link units or Devolo Magic 2 . This avoids needing Ethernet all the way to your remote units. A short Ethernet cable would plug in from this unit to the back of your Sky MiniBox and another carry data from the Q box to its own PCU. This only a suggestion, I have no guarantee it would work and does involve extra cost to get around SuperHub's shortcomings. 

The solution looks simple to me, EE should withdraw all Superhubs and their extenders and replace them with BT hubs and "discs". After all, despite their pretence, they are really just one company, who have decided to differentiate their "market" by offering a marginally lower cost service with seriously inferior equipment which doesn't work very well, as well as a superior service/gear for higher cost business customers.

wadinga

[RuralPirate]

I have to say that my EE superhub works much better than my old BT hub, the only problem was when the ethernet cable was connected to the Q box, now that is removed it all works perfectly, I have just checked my speed, download 976 upload 189, that is pretty good.

[Helmac]

Hi Wadinga

totally agree with your view on EE withdrawing their flawed hubs! Where did you see that about them going back to BT hubs. I asked for that yesterday and was refused. Might try and ask again.

My set is main sky Q box and 3 Sky mini boxes are all Ethernet connections. I have 2 of my 4 WiFi extenders Ethernet and 2 just on WiFi. All seems to work apart from the Sky Q box issue. 

cheers

Helmac

[harkid]

I get the same issue as well and this is on the back of having to take it upon myself to install an Ethernet network throughout the house to stop my sky box from disconnecting from the the sky hub situated a whole 2 metres away... At my own expense. 

i don't have an EE router, I have Sky's own one, but anyway that's not the issue. Regularly, live TV will freeze, set top box becomes unresponsive and the fan will spin up noisily until you pull the power. I've kinda given up on even calling support. Hey, at least it's cheap!

[RuralPirate]

I have had no problems since removing the ethernet cable and running on wifi, but the Q box now has to be switched on twice (switch on 1 min later it turns itself off, turn on again) then no problems the rest of the day, weird.

[stereohaven]

I've been blaming Q300 for many issues I have experIenced recently with Q, but now I have found this thread, I might need to rethink!

Had a replacement box on Friday due to coming down in the morning to a frozen box with fan spinning loudly constantly for the umpteenth time. New box  installed and updated and this morning, same problem.

I have the Smart Hub Plus from EE, connected to Q using ethernet albeit via an unmanaged switch and none of the other devices connected have these issues, including an EE supplied Apple TV 4K.

I'm not technically minded enough to know if a router can be the culprit here or if it is a software issue on the box or a bit of both, but I do know that I didn't have this problem with BT equipment on Q280.

I have changed power standby from 'Eco' to 'Active' to see if that has any impact.

[RuralPirate]

Hi, I've had no problems since I removed the Ethernet cable and started using Wi-Fi. good luck

[stereohaven]

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@RuralPirate wrote:

Hi, I've had no problems since I removed the Ethernet cable and started using Wi-Fi. good luck

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Just to bring this full circle for me, I unplugged the Ethernet cable from the Q box and connected it via WiFi to the compatibility network I have set up on the EE Smart Hub Plus.

I have had over a week without any issues.

The only problem I have now is I have sent a v.3 box back believing it was broken only to receive a v.2 box as a replacement which doesn't support UHD on iPlayer. 🤣

[wadinga]

Hi Stereohaven,

Glad to hear this fix works for you. Too bad Sky haven't figured this out and informed customers rather than sending out replacement boxes, resulting in cost, hassle and loss of recordings. Disturbed to see a user has reported similar problems using a Sky hub.  Probably something hidden away on a chip that nobody realised would cause a problem, but it does and we are finding out the hard way.

All the best

wadinga  

[stereohaven]

@wadinga 

I suspect it is the lack of consistency that is part of the problem, too many variables with so many boxes linked to different types of broadband and if the fault lies with Q, they haven't been able to pinpoint it.

Let's be honest, Q is a legacy product really, there won't ever be an updated version and the networking components are a bit long in the tooth now, so nailing the culprit and delivering a permanent fix might be quite low down any list of defects.