Freezing Puck and Black Screens

[DTsy92]

I received two pucks today, one hard wired and one WiFi. Both keep intermittently black screening and freezing out, very occasionally this will happen and it will auto restart otherwise it needs powering off and on again. I've tried hard resets, in fact sometimes they freeze during hard resets, usually half way through the Sky Stream logo. I've spent ages on with technical and they blame my network, even though when I can get into the Netflix app on WiFi I'm getting over 250mbps. I'm using an Asus Mesh with Sky 1gb Broadband. Any ideas anyone? As I'm completely at a loss now. Tried everything.

[DTsy92]

Connection to puck reported by Asus Router as Very Strong, TX Rate 1201, RX Rate 6

[lettice]

First, rather than a power reset of the pucks, try a puck settings restart 

Go to Settings>Systems Management>Resets & Updates
Select Restart device
Your Sky Stream puck will perform a reboot. It will take a few minutes to complete

Having a good local network broadband reach is key to Sky Stream.
Not just broadband speed to your house and router, but for your local network supply via wifi or ethernet, that can be affected in a busy household.

Best way to test is via a network speed test on each of your Pucks, which see you have tried, but run this a handful of times over a half hour or so period.
Launch Netflix on your pucks (you do not need to be logged into it, if you do not use netflix) and scroll down the left menu to Get help. Choose Check Network.


Also, it may be suffering from interference,, the puck much like a Sky Q box can for some customers suffer from this at times. More often seen as an intermittent blip.
Not always a cure, but the following may help to resolve;
Make sure you have a good 6-8 inches free on all sides of the puck.
Do not stack the puck on top of any other device.
Best not to sit it on a glass shelf. Wood is generally the best.
Make sure the puck is in the open, not tucked away in a cabinet or sat directly behind the TV.
Make sure you have no other devices that can cause interference closeby, like cordless phones, radiators, baby monitors, smart meter in home displays, microwaves and the like.
You should be using the Sky supplied hdmi cable or a high speed equivalent one.

Plus, change both your pucks to following recommended settings set in Settings>
Turn wifi OFF under Network if connected via ethernet.
Set Network standby mode to ON and Overnight power saving is OFF.

More information like the above on the Sky FAQ help pages link here; https://www.sky.com/help/home/sky-tv/sky-tv-stream/fixing-a-problem-sky-stream/fixing-sky-glass-sky-...

[DTsy92]

Thank you so much for the reply and suggestions.

I ran the speed tests continuously over the course of the day, interestingly it never got above 250mbps on either device, where as my Google tv,  and fire TV were both reporting nearly 800mbps over the course of the day.

I have performed reboots from the actual device as recommended also at least twice on each device, and have isolated them as much as possible allowing free air around both devices.

Both devices are powered by the original adapters, with the included HDMI cables, one to an LG Oled, and the other to a Samsung QDOled. I changed all recommended settings automatically as I remember this very much being useful in the Sky Q days, but again to no benefit.

I am really confused how Sky could make the same mistakes with the Stream as they did with the Q's. I appreciate they operate differently to other streaming devices, but surely not to the extent that so many people would be having these problems. I also cannot understand how a weak signal could cause the device to completely crash repeatedly, surely I should expect some error messages or dropping of stream rather than a full blown crash?

Is it entirely possible as these are intermittent problems that because Sky recycle their products we are getting non full functioning devices sent back out to us?

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

Today I am trying a new router, and Sky have agreed to send me a replacement device, see if this is the cause of the issue, although to note, Sky are convinced this is a signal issue, and not faulty devices, so will only send me one box at a time.

Thanks all.

[DTsy92]

Well the new box has arrived, and without any changes it's working. The difference is night and day. It works in every location of the house, but the second one does not work. This is more than enough evidence to say that Sky has a hardware problem when they can send two faulty products out on the same delivery. I'm willing to bet that the testing procedure after refurbishment is not anywhere near adequate enough, and they just check basic power on and firmware flashing.

[Dazel1]

Can i please ask if you contacted Sky via email or other to get replacements as need to do the same. Mine is less than 1 week old and it constantly freezes sometimes after less than a minute. Netflix tests show that its averaging 220mbps so its not a network issue.

[DTsy92]

Yes I contacted the technical department, and after much going backwards and forwards I demanded a replacement puck. If this works for you please come back and tell us so we can start to build a picture.

[Dazel1]

Do you have the email address or did you ring dont fancy being on the phone for hours on end.

[DTsy92]

Sorry it was a call

[Mark39]

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@Dazel1 wrote:

Do you have the email address or did you ring dont fancy being on the phone for hours on end.

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Sky don't use email as a general means of contact.