Opening up the Sky DG834GT

[Saturday]

There's an interesting post in a thread in the asking for help forum from ricopico

He managed to get an apparently dead Sky router back to life by opening it up and removing what appeared to be a clipped in PCMCIA-like wireless card.

Not only is this possibly worth knowing as a potential last resort for a dead router but I guess it opens up the possibility of playing around with the wireless capability?

The post can be found here.

[ricopico]

Heres the pictures to anyone who is interested in the fix.

My router was not responding to anything, it was not seen on the network, and was not doing any power on self testing ect.

Removing the wireless card has totally fixed the router, allowing it to work fully (except without the wireless function)

If anyone needs any help reproducing my results, let me i know.

[Harry Azol]

FWIW, I believe that is a mini pci card... the same as used in many laptops, and some pci wireless cards..

[murdock]

Removing the wireless card has totally fixed the router, allowing it to work fully (except without the wireless function)

Rico, before opening the router did you try just disabling
the wireless connection.
I am only connected with the LAN/ethernet.
For security reasons, I disabled wireless and changed
my password, as suggested by someone else.
I have never had problems with my router.


My Sky BB Max. FRB.
Fast, Reliable, Bargain.

[ricopico]

No sir,

The router was well and truly dead, and would not except any connections.

After powering on the router, all 4 network port lights came on, and stayed on. There was no web interface, and there were no open ports at all on the router.

After whipping the pci-e card out, the router powered up and i could access the web interface. I then as a matter of caution dissabled the wireless connection. I wonder if i plug the card back in, with the wireless connection, would it power up?

Maybe ill check that next time im bored.

[ricopico]

To follow up on this, I did indeed plug the card back into the router to check if it worked again..

It didnt, the router was dead again.

I dont have a spair mini-pci card, but if anyone has one they would like to send to me, Im happy to try the router with it instead..

We could then find out if wireless signal is affected by the card thats inside..

[d3fiant]

bit of thread revival here but this post gives me an idea. Ihave 2 dead sky routers and am waiting on a new one being delivered. That being said my first router works fine EXCEPT for ADSL, works as a wireless router and switch but wont connect to sky. The second router recently failed for some unknown reason, all I get now is the 4 NIC LEDs light up when power is applied, then nothing. So im thinking remove the wfi card like you did, see if the router works, then swap the wifi card from the other router into this one to see If I can get something working, will let you know how I get on

[d3fiant]

ricopico, did u have some form of copper tape holding the wifi card to the routers PCB, I have it in both of my routers and was wonderig if it has any function, otherwise why use metallic tape

[ricopico]

Yes sir, there was some tape attatched to it, I just pulled this off, didnt apear to do anything.

I assume you have opened the router up then? - Have my results been duplicated?

Regards!

[d3fiant]

Yes sir, there was some tape attatched to it, I just pulled this off, didnt apear to do anything.

I assume you have opened the router up then? - Have my results been duplicated?

Regards!

Afraid not, the router keeps rebooting continuously but at least I know both mini-pci wireless cards work, perhaps they will end up on ebay. I got my new router yesterday, plugged it in to get the 300 error, stale connection. phoned sky and demanded to speak to tier 3 who insistedon capping my 3mb line to 1mb to fix the problem, even tho 3mb has been stable since january, I do wonder about them sometimes. I was tempted to tell them to shove it but the other providers in my exchange say Im too far from it to provide a service to.....go figure