Sky Q box - issues started last few days (?)

[skotishman]

Just in the last few days, my Sky Q box has started developing several annoying issues such as 

- very laggy when changing channels or loading info on live TV etc

- some issues with recordings old and new. Some recent recordings are saying software issues, partly recorded (?)

- fast forward and rewind is not working properly or as efficiently, and also you fast forward 3 mins then it goes back to 2 mins, 3 mins, 2 mins etc (?)

- issues with blue screen or black screen coming on briefly when trying to watch channels/recordings 

I looked at my hardware and software details.

I have the 32B063 box, which I believe is an older model.

Software version stated on system as Q220.000.23.00L (5Irke0s)

Usually when issues occur such as freezing or lag, unpugging and resetting box has always fixed it before, but it seems not this time. Have done this 6 or 7 times last few days, and still issues.

Also did a soft reset of the box, but it has not fixed issues either.

I have never had a message saying hard disk error, so don't want to do a full reset and lose everything on my box, but the way it's going it may come to that.

I see on SKY it says you can upgrade the Sky Q box by going to Shop, so I thought maybe I could get the latest version of the Sky Q box, but seem to go round in circles and I don't see where exactly you can do this on shop for existing Sky Q customers (?)

Virtual chat doesn't help, and it seems you can never talk to a human on the chat (unless you phone I guess) 

The Sky Q box still works (of sorts) but is frustrating to use right now.

I am a diamond customer paying a huge amount per month, so I need a box that does function 100%.

Am I just as well booking an engineer visit and see what they say?

[Tom-W19]

Hi @skotishman 

Your post has been escalated to our Community Messaging team who will invite you to a private chat shortly and help you with this.

Just look out for the chat bubble to start the conversation.

Here's more information on how Community Messaging works - https://community.sky.com/t5/Did-you-know/Escalating-a-post-to-a-Sky-expert/ba-p/3711147

[stevebrads]

Hi did you get your box fixed? We have the same issue and have done a hardware reset and still can not recurs or download. 

[skotishman]

Hi there,

No, some of the issues are still l there as I originally reported, but since I wrote that post some other things came up in my personal life, so this issue went on the back burner, will probably follow it up again in the early New Year.

My SKY Q box is still frustrating to use sometimes, recordings are still a lottery if they work properly or not and every recording says "part recorded, software issue" , fast forward/rewind is not working as effectively as it did before this ussue started, still lagging on changing channel or accessing recordings etc.

I think another possible slight issue, may be interference from a tall tree in next doors garden in my dish line of sight. Already had my dish moved about 3 times in the past few years. But even accounting for this, all I used to get with that was interference with some channels getting slight break up etc - the box never had the issues it has now with forward/rewind, lagging etc..

As I say, other personal matters took over from dealing with this problem, so haven't got it sorted yet - but will hopefully chase up again in New Year. It still works - kind of - so it's not as if I don't have any SKY TV at all.  

[skotishman]

Should have said as well, I never did the hard rese yet. Reluctant to do this, given that you lose EVERYTHING on the box if you do that. Have tried updating software, and as far as I know it is up to date - but who knows what is going on with the box. The soft reset did not fix the issues.

If the box is faulty and needs replacing, I know I will lose everything anyway. Not the end of the world, but will be a blow. But if that's what it takes to get a proper working SKY Q, I will just have to suck it up.

[cjs1234]

I have had exactly the same issues. Started a couple of weeks ago. I have an original mark 1 box installed a couple of months after Q was released. No real issues prior to this. Did the first level reset and several reboots. Made no difference.

Called Sky one evening and engineer came out 3.00 the following afternoon. He walked through door and said your hard disk has gone (we had no error messages).  Basically the issues with the hard disk were causing all the other issues. Box changed to current model HDR  version and everything resolved.

For info my disk was about 75% full and I've managed to replace well over half of the recordings. My sky go app still showed what was on the box and I just took photos of what was on and worked from this.

[skotishman]

Hi there,

Yes I must admit I was on the verge of getting an engineer out too, but then other events in my life overtook this problem at the time.

Come New Year, I will probably do that too, book an engineer and hopefully get a more up to date Q box. Will have to ask about the dish positioning too, as I am not sure how high the SKY engineers go, to see if they can move the dish again to avoid any possible tree interference for a good while again.

I am pretty sure like you, my hard disk has gone - but I know that anything you have bought off SKY store can be downloaded for free again, and I am sure I can try to download one or two other shows. Like you, my box is pretty full (77%) but most of this is movies I have never got around to watching, so no big loss. That was a good tip though about how to keep a record what you had on the old box, cheers! 

[Chodley]

At the same time, if you don't know what it was you had recorded, you probably don't need it 🙂