Problem with my cable box...not a clue lol.

[Raven]

Basically as it stands I know next to nothing about cable and stuff but I'm thinking about learning it properly more and more. Anyhow I have a cloned dbox (I think, yknow them tiny boxes ) and basically it's very unstable....on average I'll get a crash lockup every few days thus forcing me to unplug the power cable however after about 3 crashes the next one is fatal...meaning upon plugging the power cable back in I get nothing, no boot up, no error messages....just a dead box that's receiving power essentially....the thing is me and my brother sorted out the problem in that we got the box up and running twice.....but the source of the issue remains and I don't know what is causing it. I do know it's getting on my nerves not knowing.

I just wondered what you guys make of it ? as you will no doubt know alot more about it than I do.

Also apologies should this be deemed the wrong section and feel free to move it if you wish.

[Devilfish]

To start off, I'd flash it with another image.

I'm not 100% sure what box you have, a dbox2 (nokia/sagem) or dreambox dm500c?

Whatever you do, backup the current image first, and also backup your services and bouquets too. Once we know exactly what box you have and what image is on it, we can go from there.

[Jaffa]

Heres a few pics of some of the popular boxes. As Glen said, once you know what box it is then an image can be recommended.


DBOX





Dreambox 500


Eurovox





Starview




Linux blackbox




Openmedia box

[Raven]

The second picture down is my box, the Dreambox 500. I always get Dbox and Dreambox mixed up .

Anyway I'm not 100% sure what the image is called that's on it, I know it's not the Digital Kaos one, it's one of the older ones. Sorry I can't be more specific. We reflashed it totally before to get it working again but the problem persisted....I don't know if it's defective components or a signal splitter issue of some kind....my brother thinks it's a splitter issue but I really can't be sure without second opinion or thorough testing from someone who knows what they are doing as I always assumed the splitter power to be fine as when the box worked most channels played flawlessly except for 1 or 2 but I'll be the first to admit that I didn't spend ages tweaking anything with it.

So yeah I just wondered what you guys think of it.

[Devilfish]

Press Menu > Information > Stream Info > Right > Right

Post the SNR, AGC and BER values.

To test, you could remove the splitter and run it connected to the main feed for a few days (if that's feasible) to see if it's a signal issue.

Box could be overheating, remove the lid and see if it improves.
Don't have it sitting on top of any other boxes as the heat from those will transfer into the dreambox. Don't have it in a cabinet, try and have it in the open air.

[Raven]

I can't post the values until I've got it back up and running again because the box is totally unresponsive as it stands....sounds like overheating might be a possibility and plus my box is usually near my pc and hard drive and laid on a platform of my computer desk but it's down and out of the way as opposed to on show.

When I get it back up and running I'll keep it in a totally different place and run it off the main feed whenever I'm watching telly to see if that helps any or makes a difference.

Thanks for the help though guys