Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


Sket

13 posts

Geek


#95944 17-Jan-2012 11:34
Send private message

Hi guys,

I'm in a flatting situation whereby the head tenant is away quite often for long periods of time, I'm hoping to try resolve this myself before asking him to contact Sky (which is in his name) to sort out some support.

The set up:
We have Sky digital with Mysky in lounge 1, sky in lounge 2 and now a third decoder in my room.

The problem:
When we got the third decoder installed the technician had to climb on the roof to replace the LNB as apparently it was quite old and would not support 3 decoders.
The decoder ran fine for a fortnight but then when i went away I accidently unplugged the decoder while packing up my PS3. Not giving it much thought, I decided to leave it unplugged while I was away.
Upon returning (a week later) I found that in the slightest cloud cover I couldn't get reception but on fine days it worked okay. Now I'm getting "loss of signal due to rain fade" anytime of the day or night despite what the weather is doing. It tells me I am getting 35 (%?) signal but the bars are all grey.
Also I found that my TV seems to be magnetised.

I have checked all cables and reset the box a number of time.

I know there are previous suggestions in this forum but due to the gradual detrition  and the fact I had the sky box unplugged for a week I wonder if this is actually a LNB problem (which should be a new unit) or maybe something else?

Create new topic
vexxxboy
4243 posts

Uber Geek


  #569935 17-Jan-2012 14:39
Send private message

are the other people connected to the same dish having signal problems at the same time, if they are then it is probably the LNB, a sky technician was telling me that the last shipment of LNB's were crap , his words, and when he replaced my LNB for the same reason as yours , he couldn't guarantee how long it would last, some last only weeks some are still going, and he was waiting for the next shipment for the problem to be solved.




Common sense is not as common as you think.




Jaxson
8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #569941 17-Jan-2012 14:50
Send private message

Sket: Also I found that my TV seems to be magnetised. 
This bit sounds cool, like are teaspoons sticking to it and stuff?

Brunzy
2016 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #569946 17-Jan-2012 14:53
Send private message

Jaxson:
Sket: Also I found that my TV seems to be magnetised.?
This bit sounds cool, like are teaspoons sticking to it and stuff?


Quality Jaxson ,quality ;-)



Jaxson
8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #569950 17-Jan-2012 15:03
Send private message

Ok, how about this then,

What happens if you swap your 3 sky boxes around? Like do the others work on all 3 outlets around the house, and does your 'faulty' one work in any of the other locations. Sounds like you have all the tools to do a fair bit of analysis already.

B1GGLZ
1961 posts

Uber Geek


  #569986 17-Jan-2012 15:51
Send private message

Sket: Hi guys,

Also I found that my TV seems to be magnetised.



I presume therefore you are using an old CRT TV?
I had on old Phillips set that needed degaussing occasionally. I found that the degaussing circuit only worked when switching on at initial power up and not from standby. So unplug the TV, wait 30 secs then plug in and switch on. That should demagnetise it.
The problem doesn't exist with LCDs and Plasmas.

Niel
3267 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #569997 17-Jan-2012 16:17
Send private message

B1GGLZ: I had on old Phillips set that needed degaussing occasionally. I found that the degaussing circuit only worked when switching on at initial power up and not from standby. So unplug the TV, wait 30 secs then plug in and switch on. That should demagnetise it.

That is how you activate the degaussing circuit, because it should be done only when you move your TV location (usually requires unplugging) or else if you've had magnets too close.

Regarding the OT, are you sure you screwed in the satellite cable?  When we moved into our new house and had to get an installation done the installer only partly screwed in (all) the cables which causes impedance mismatch.  Especially in our humid climate you get corrosion (tarnish) so after a while the installer has to come back and do an easy "repair".  Sorry, I'm a bit sceptical when it comes to general tradesmen.

There is also a chance the satellite cable had an assembly fault and broke when you unplugged it.  That is not your problem, but something you can easily confirm by swapping with another cable (just like swapping the STB to isolate the problem).




You can never have enough Volvos!


Sket

13 posts

Geek


  #570010 17-Jan-2012 16:35
Send private message

vexxxboy: are the other people connected to the same dish having signal problems at the same time, if they are then it is probably the LNB, a sky technician was telling me that the last shipment of LNB's were crap , his words, and when he replaced my LNB for the same reason as yours , he couldn't guarantee how long it would last, some last only weeks some are still going, and he was waiting for the next shipment for the problem to be solved.


Sorry i forgot to mention this - then other two boxes seem to be working fine

 
 
 

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.
Sket

13 posts

Geek


  #570012 17-Jan-2012 16:35
Send private message

Jaxson:
Sket: Also I found that my TV seems to be magnetised. 
This bit sounds cool, like are teaspoons sticking to it and stuff?


Haha Wink

Sket

13 posts

Geek


  #570016 17-Jan-2012 16:35
Send private message

Jaxson: Ok, how about this then,

What happens if you swap your 3 sky boxes around? Like do the others work on all 3 outlets around the house, and does your 'faulty' one work in any of the other locations. Sounds like you have all the tools to do a fair bit of analysis already.


I haven't tried this but will when i get home - thanks for the idea

Sket

13 posts

Geek


  #570022 17-Jan-2012 16:38
Send private message

Niel:
B1GGLZ: I had on old Phillips set that needed degaussing occasionally. I found that the degaussing circuit only worked when switching on at initial power up and not from standby. So unplug the TV, wait 30 secs then plug in and switch on. That should demagnetise it.

That is how you activate the degaussing circuit, because it should be done only when you move your TV location (usually requires unplugging) or else if you've had magnets too close.

Regarding the OT, are you sure you screwed in the satellite cable?  When we moved into our new house and had to get an installation done the installer only partly screwed in (all) the cables which causes impedance mismatch.  Especially in our humid climate you get corrosion (tarnish) so after a while the installer has to come back and do an easy "repair".  Sorry, I'm a bit sceptical when it comes to general tradesmen.

There is also a chance the satellite cable had an assembly fault and broke when you unplugged it.  That is not your problem, but something you can easily confirm by swapping with another cable (just like swapping the STB to isolate the problem).


Haha yeah degaussing it from the power point seems to work fine Smile

I've checked the cable and it looks to be fine but that is an option. I'll double check this when home also.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

Jaxson
8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

  #570298 18-Jan-2012 10:41
Send private message

How did you get on?

Sket

13 posts

Geek


  #570398 18-Jan-2012 14:41
Send private message

Jaxson: How did you get on?


I asked the flatmate if he wouldn't mind me switching the boxes around to do a test, he told me that they had a problem last week (we don't catch each other often) where the screen was getting pixelated every couple of minutes so we called Sky

They did all the usual checks (is it plugged in, are the settings right, etc) and have sent someone out today.

I'll update once we've got a result.

Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.