Faulty Sky+ box, lost all sound and out of focus picture, red (recording) light on

[SLK1]

 Our Sky+ box stopped working yesterday afternoon.  Picture gone blurry and no sound on any channels.  The TV is working fine as are other devices when connected to it.  In addition the red recording light is permanently coming on when  the sky box resets itself.  I have followed all the steps per the very annoying bot chat and links which eventually advised me to book an engineering visit but said this is only possible to do through the sky protect site.  Well,  we are not Sky Protect customers nor do I plan on joining it so how are we supposed to book an engineer visit or arrange a replacement box?  Also, just to add insult to injury, we tried to upgrade to Sky Q in August 2023 but the visiting engineer said it was not possible, so we were put back on our original plan, only to discover today that Sky subsequently tied us into another 18month contract term for them not being able to provide the Sky Q package!  I presume we will get compensation for loss of service and delays due to the inability to contact and actually speak with anyone to get a resolution underway due to their major 3rd party outage?

[Mark39]

What are the steps you've taken to try to fix it?

[SLK1]

Disconnected everything yesterday and left off overnight.  Reconnected just sky box directly to tv, checked all cables and connections, completed rebuild to restart box.  Reviewed sound settings and tried changing those too.  The red "recording" light is on all the time although there is nothing recording or playing.

[Mark39]

Doesn't sound good. You could try a Full System Reset (same menu as Planner Rebuild) as a last resort, but I suspect the box has expired.

If that turns out to be the case, you might want to look at a used replacement Sky+HD box. There's usually plenty available to buy cheaply on ebay etc. Buy only a DRX890 or DRX895 model - they're the most recent.

[TimmyBGood]

---

@SLK1 wrote:

 Well,  we are not Sky Protect customers nor do I plan on joining it so how are we supposed to book an engineer visit or arrange a replacement box? 

Sky no longer provides that kind of support for the Sky+ platform.  Sky Q replaced it as the flagship product in 2016, and has itself been followed by Glass/Stream.  There aren't any installer visits outside the Protect scheme, and the boxes haven't been manufactured since 2015.

I presume we will get compensation for loss of service and delays due to the inability to contact and actually speak with anyone to get a resolution underway due to their major 3rd party outage?

Probably not, but you can ask for a goodwill gesture.

---

[Exiled-in-HH]

"3rd Party outage" ? .... if you are referring to yesterday's IT issues ... they only lasted a few hours so would result negligible compensation😟

Does your box still have issues?