Fried sky box

[sealzy]

New boy here, but I'd really appreciate some advice. My dish was struck by lightening today and since then, all the LED's on the Sky box, (Amstrad DRX300), have been flashing.

I called Sky and they did the usual rebooting routine, which clearly wasn't going to fix it. They concluded that the box was fried!

My question is, do I have to pay the £65 + parts call out from Sky, or can I buy a replacement box on the web somewhere? If so, will it be compatible with my Sky card?

If I can get a Sky box cheap somewhere, can anyone suggest a good place to get one?

Muchos appreciatos amegos

Sealzy

 

[rolfw]

If you tell Sky to cancel your subscription because your box has died, they will almost certainly offer you an exchange unit for £60, they will probably replace the LNB as well, as it is probably also fried.

 

[sealzy]

Thanks for that Rolfw. Sorry to be a bit of a doofus, but what is a LNB? Is that something to do with the dish itself?

 

[BGonaSTICK]

Yeah, the LNB the lumpy bit at the end of the dish arm (that the dish will focus it's reflected beam onto).

You could always just buy yourself a new LNB (less than £10) and a second hand digibox (from about £30) on ebay. Both are simple plug-in jobs, though you may also have to buy a ladder!

STICK

 

[sealzy]

Thanks for the help BGonaSTICK. I might just have a go at that. How hard can it be!!!!

Would my existing Sky card work with a secondhand Amstrad box from ebay?

Would the actual dish be OK, providing I replace the LNB? Can you recomend an LNB? Are there good ones and bad ones?

Ahhhh, so many questions...... Sorry about that.

Sealzy

 

[rolfw]

Wouldn't buy an Amstrad or Grundig off E-bay, too much chance of them breaking. LNBs for minidishes are pretty much of a muchness, the Skywares lnb is OK as is the Thompson, but you have to make sure that it has the correct adaptor for your dish boom (the dish shouldn't be affected). By the time you've messed about with finding everything from eBay, I still think that you'd be better off getting the deal from Sky

 

[sealzy]

Thanks RolfW. I'm starting to thing you might be right. Having contacted a few people, it sounds like the modem in the box has been fried by the lightening strike.

The TV isn't working either. I reckon it's more than a co-incidence that the TV has gone on the blink, as well as the Sky box. Is this possible? Any thoughs would be appreciated.

Sealzy

 

[Channel Hopper]

Lightning could affect the houshold appliances from
1) a direct hit on the TV aerial
2) A direct hit on the satellite dish
3) A direct hit on the telephone line
4) A rise in potential from the mains supply

and almost any connection between the items , coax or Scart, will have caused damage to be transferred

I would unplug everything from the mains for about ten minutes (go boil a kettle beforehand) , switch off the mains supply at the consumer box, drink the tea, and then reconnect everything one at a time. You may find specific damage becomes more apparent as you switch each item back on


If you ha