Sky stream freezes, restarts by itself eventually

[haMMerAttack]

Hi there,

Upgraded from Sky Q to Sy stream a few days ago. Day within the first hour of installation, saw the familiar signs, "Waiting to load programme...", picture freezing, and then it restarts itself. I also upgraded to Sky Fibre 500 fearing I need higher bandwidth.

Checked speed in netflix app ~270Mbps several times for an hour to get a good average. My phone reports ~480Mbps, so don't know why the puck can't manage that?

I switched to ethernet for half a day and that didn't help.m (ensured wifi was off).

Quite disappointing that within minutes I could google these problems and Sky sold me this knowing that these existed, and of all the odds I get a dud puck (if that is the problem here). Live TV seems to be issue, iplayer, netflix are fine. Initially used UHD, then lowered it up to 1080i but problem still exists. 

Help please...life is busy as it is without these complications!

[Anonymous]

Hi @haMMerAttack 

Thanks for posting a detailed report. It's good to see that you tried speed tests and Ethernet to see if it's that. 

The next step that Sky would probably advise you to do is to do a recovery. Check step 4 of https://www.sky.com/help/articles/power-issue-help-sky-glass-sky-stream-puck 

If that doesn't work it sounds like you might need to seek a replacement. What you're describing isn't common and it's very much not the service most of us get.

[haMMerAttack]

Awesome @Anonymous , thank you for the quick response - I'm so looking forward to using the new tech.

So by recovery, it's meant to take me through the initial process, activations and setup?

That's what it did. It didn't work at first, meaning I left it on a live channel and ended up freezing with a black screen.

So I doubted my ability and tried again. Unfortuantely, the same happened again - black screen.

I hope I did the recovery correctly, asks to connect remote, pin, activate, resolution etc.... it didn't ask me for WiFi, so it didn't reset that?

Is that correct?

What would be the next course of action?

[peter-marlow+1966]

The puck is only  able  to receive  a maximum  of 100mps, the same as all tvs  in the uk, the 480mps is what your hub is receiving  there is no way your puck or tv would get 280mps the is something  wrong there Netflixs  is getting  a faulty  reading , tv"s are fitted  with an interface card 100base tx to stop the tv / puck going  over the 100mps, i have a  55inch  sky glass tv for over 3 years  and a puck, also i have full fibre to the property gigafast broadband i get 900mps  to  the hub, and when ever i do a network  check on the tv in the living room which is  connected to the router  by an ethernet cable  the most i ever got is 98mps and the puck  which  is in the bedroom  and connected  by wifi the most at the Netflix  check has said  is 93mps

[Anonymous]

@peter-marlow+1966 That only applies to Ethernet, Wifi isn't capped to 100Mbps. I get around 300Mbps on that speed test with WiFi. 

I think @haMMerAttack you should contact Sky tomorrow and see if you can get a replacement puck. 

[peter-marlow+1966]

That's  not true  the pucks have the same interface  card  fitted  as the tv it is a regulation  requirement  and i know this as i build  circuit  broads  for a living  so no i don't  need to get a new puck as i can do diagnostic  tests on it 

[haMMerAttack]

Hi @peter-marlow+1966 , I have to second @Anonymous 's findings, because when I plugged the puck in via ethernet, I could only see ~85 Mbps.

@Anonymous , thanks, will call them tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

@peter-marlow+1966 Regarding the replacement puck I was addressing @haMMerAttack

Regarding WiFi speeds I think you are mistaken on this one as I've observed many streamer boxes reach above 100Mbps on WiFi. But I don't want to get into an argument about it because even 100Mbps should be fine. 

[haMMerAttack]

Just to keep you up to date, the sky engineer told me that my mesh wifi frequencies 2.4GHz and 5GHz were confusing the puck and I should try to power cycle it and remove and add the wifi again. However, that hasn't worked. I tried to lock the frequency available to the puck to 5GHz from the access point but that made things a lot worse, e.g. freezing menus etc.

So I'm going to give them a call again on and see what else they want checked.

[lettice]

Don't split or just use one wifi frequency.

That was a kind of trick on filters a good decade or so back for some to get older IOT kit and older printers to wake up and connect temporarily.

That can cause more problems than it solves if having it set on as a long term.

Looks like you do have a local network supplying a good speed to your puck from your tests above.

It does though, sound like some kind of interference blip is happening around your puck.

More on that below.

By the way, when you use Ethernet, as well as turning wifi off. You do need to straight away after making the wifi change remove the power from the puck or do a restart within puck settings.

This will ensure the wifi off switch is set, otherwise it will not.

Like I said above, it may be suffering from interference,, the puck much like a Sky Q box can for some customers suffers 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, set Network standby mode to ON and Overnight power saving to 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-...

[haMMerAttack]

I did try that with Ethernet plugged in, expecting it to work fine, but same issue came up - had read that in the forums. Also, about the standby options, I did these again in the last test just in case. I'll be calling Sky tomorrow next to the puck, so hopefully all can be resolved.

Is there anyway I can get information from the puck, some debug log, so I know its an interference issue?

[haMMerAttack]

Alright, update.

So after really trying to convince Sky Customer Service on the phone that the puck was faulty - they didn't believe me and agreed to send an engineer. The engineer that turned up was a broadband engineer, no anything to do with Sky Stream - but he was at least able to verify my experiments and accelerate the call to get the puck replaced. Yup there was a hardware issue, the network connection lights were flickering and the stream light was not on when it had one of its moments. I've just plugged it on and left it, connected via ethernet to a deco station. It seems to be ok. But with hingsight for all you out there, if the symptoms are the following, its the puck:

- Freezing picture (provided speed tests confirm that nothing is wrong with the connection)

- Screen blacking out

- Menu freezes on occasions

- Remote power has no effect

Let's hope it stays ok, cause the plan was to get another one for downstairs 🙄

[AlexandraW3]

I have exactly the same problem. I only received the puck yesterday so perhaps it's a faulty batch.  I had ordered a new remote as I thought that may have been the issue as it just keeps freezing.  Now I've seen you had the same problem I'll contact them tomorrow and demand a new puck.