Amstrad Sky + (A20B015) Low to No Signal Problem on Input 1

[DrProzac]

ps how old is your box? Was it a maxtor drive inside? Why not go to the maniufactuer website and see if the old hard drive is still in warranty.... worth the look as you could get a free replacement and as 40Gb are nolonger commonplace you may get a much bigger replacement.

That happened when my folks failed. I sent it back to Maxtor and they sent me back a re-manufactured 250Gb drive!!!!!!1

Box was originaly installed 12th December 2004 (Circuit Board inside was stampled as Amstrad 2003)

Original Drive I took out was a SEAGATE ST340015ACE

As on the label it says it's an OEM Drive I doubt I'd get a replacement..?

[reddwarfcrew]

OEM still qualify. I don't think you will be lucky, but worth putting the serial number in:

Warranty Validation

just to see.

[DrProzac]

Oh well a week on and having the same problems again.

So looks like I'm going to need to stunp up the cash and get a new box.

Now should I go for another SKY + Box, or try and go all out for a HD Box?

Any idea's a good place to get one without paying through the nose?

[reddwarfcrew]

hmm, that's surprising. first time a new hard drive hasn't fixed the problem.

Did your drive appear on the recommended list on digispy link as some driv aren't suitable.

Eitherway you can source a cheap replacement box from ebay, but do expect the price on ebay to soon rise as the free sky+ sub will increase the second hand value.

[DrProzac]

Yes it was the smaller 80GB Drive recommended. Although I was admit it wasn't a new drive.

It had been used before in a PC for about six months for recording Sat stuff from a Dreambox

So maybe that's the problem?

I may just go for a cheap ebay box then? Or get sky out for the £65 ?

Any ideas what sort of box i'd get from Sky? Would it give me anytime?

[reddwarfcrew]

chances are you'd get a refurb box which probably won't cope with anytime, but you may get lucky.

Did you do a low level format of the drive before putting it in the sky box? (this can only be done outside of a windows environment using a boot disk off the hard drive manufacturers website. It does take a few hrs to run as well, but you need to totally wipe the drive completely before putting it in).

[DrProzac]

Yes done a low level format. After wondering why the Copy + utility wouldn't recognise the drive!!

Still you live and learn.

Guess I'll just have to do the Software update trick until I can afford to get a new box.

Thanks for all your help anyway!!