My Sky box has a "no signal message" - what do I do?
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV If you are getting the message "no signal" this would indicate that there is a problem with the signal from your dish into your box. Even without a card inserted into a Sky Digibox, if there is a signal, you will always get Sky Guide and the free channels.
Try powering off your box, remove the card, check carefully the cables, especially the connection to the dish, reapply the power and then when asked to insert your card you should then be able to see (for example) Sky News on 501 and the BBC News channel on 503.
Once you can see any channel, reinsert your card. This should, after about one minute, give you the channels you expect, such as 103, 104 and 105.
There are three ways you can attempt to reset your box. Please see
What can my do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' ?.
If you continue to get "No signal", you dish may have been misaligned, or there may be a fault with the cables and connectors, or a problem with the Digibox. You can see the signal strength by pressing SERVICES, then 4-SYSTEM SETUP and 6-SIGNAL STRENGTH.
All questions
In this section
Sunday, 21 October 2012
F
Fiona9:11 PM
Hi I tested the sky box and it works fine using the cables plugged into the sky + box , I also checked the connections on the dish and they are working . I can see bbc news through the sky box itself which in itself is weird when there is no signal . Thanks for any help
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J
jb389:39 PM
Frustrated: With regards to the cable you ran from the Octo block to the TV, is this a Freesat TV that you are referring to? and the same TV that the Sky+HD box is coupled into? because if it is then although you might not have obtained a picture on the set when using the temporary lead, but was anything seen indicated on the signal strength bars? or indeed if the same test was carried out on the Sky+ HD box? as although there might not be any picture on the screen there is usually always some level of signal being indicated using the under mentioned procedure to carry out a signal check. (Only given in case you are unaware of procedure)
1:- Press "Services" on your Sky remote control and you will see the main menu with "Options" highlighted.
2:- Highlight the Settings menu using the right arrow button and press "select".
3:- Use the left / right arrows scroll to "Signal" and press select.
4:- The grey bars displayed will show you the strength of the signal to your box.
The strength / quality indicated "has" to be around 60% or more to produce a stable picture, if under then it points to the dish being slightly (very!) out of alignment, this usually being in the horizontal plane and with a slight nudge to the left or right usually correcting the problem, albeit of course rather crudely! as its best to "slightly" slacken the clamp bolt before nudging it either way.
I have to say though, that everything you have said points to the downstairs feeds having been damaged, and so even although you have already said that they seemed to be fine when checked out, but did you carefully check them inch for inch for any signs of physical damage like for example from a knife or similar "if" the route taken by the cables made them vulnerable in any way?
Further advice dependant on reply.
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J
jb389:45 PM
Fiona: Have you anything connected into the Sky boxes second scart connector? or do you just have one scart cable connected into it?
And just to verify something, when you seen the BBC news (or just BBC) whilst viewing it unscrew the dish feed that goes into the box and check if it vanishes or not?
Do NOT switch the box to standby while carrying out that check.
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Fiona10:00 PM
Just the one scart and when I remove the dish feed the channel goes... It has me puzzled
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Frustrated10:05 PM
Hi JB, thanks for the reply. The cables I ran went to the sky+HD box, and into the same TV that it was originally installed into.
I checked the signal strength each time I used a different cable, and the signal strength and quality were both zero (on both inputs) even though the signal strength on the upstairs box is fine on both lines, so that suggest to me the dish alignment is fine as well.
I agree that everything points to a dodgy cable, but I cannot see how 4 different double flex cables can all be faulty. It was just a simple connection as well, I just took them through the open window for a check.
I suppose I could run the cables through to the upstairs box just to check they are working, but if they are I am at an absolute loss as to what could be wrong!!!
Sky coming out on Thursday so hopefully will be fixed then, but I cannot see anything I am missing.
Any more idea's would be appreciated
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Fiona10:13 PM
Just realised I have channel 5 also but still nothing else and signal test is zero
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J
jb3811:49 PM
Frustrated: Well I really do feel that this problem has to be caused by something that simple that its being overlooked, and I will agree with you that the dish alignment is most likely to be OK.
I suppose that the real test to find out where the problem originates from is to temporarily install the upstairs Sky+ box in the down stairs position and check if anything is being received, if not, then (at the dish end) swap the two "F" connectors used to feed the downstairs box over onto the ports used to feed upstairs, in other words the upstairs box is now downstairs, and the two (known to be OK) LNB ports used for the upstairs box are now being used to feed downstairs, (i.e.: the box and LNB ports are still matched) because if there is still no reception then it just "has" to be the cable at fault.
Also note though that its only LNB1 (or dish 1) input that's used for viewing, LNB2 (or dish 2) is the main port used for recording, and so its only really necessary to use LNB1 for carrying out tests.
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J
jb3811:58 PM
Fiona: Could you confirm whether or not that when you press "services" on the Sky box that you can see the Sky boxes selection menu? and that when you say there no signal you are meaning when viewed on the signal checking screen?
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Monday, 22 October 2012
J
jb387:19 AM
Fiona: Just to add to my last request, now that the standard Sky box has been verified as being OK by you having tried it on the Sky+ boxes position, try reversing the situation by trying the Sky+ box in the other location used by the standard box, connecting the single "F" connector used by the standard box into the Sky+ boxes LNB1 input, do not use LNB2.
If it doesn't work, then I suspect that a strand of the coax cables braiding wire has accidentally got caught around the middle core whilst the "F" connector plug was being screwed onto the coax, this being very easily done with some types of coax.
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Wednesday, 31 October 2012
K
Kelly Wood9:16 AM
Please help I've not no signal on my sky+ box since last night, I have checked the cables and switched everything off by the mains, still no signal, please get back ASAP thank you
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