skybox freezes

[Colin070179]

Please Please can somebody help me when i am using my skybox after about 5 minutes the box freezes and i get black and green lines on screen and have to turn the box off. any help would be great.

[bigade1]

My mate's F5S started to do the exact same as this a few days ago. Eventually, the box crashed and became dead just showing a dim number eight on the display. This dim number eight issue has been reported previously on the forum with some members successfully bringing their box back to life by reflashing the firmware using a null modem cable. I'm currently waiting for one to be delivered so I can try it. It has been pointed out to me that this method hasn't been successful for everyone but I'm going to give it a go. Some of the possible causes of this particular issue have been reported by members as being a faulty power supply, a faulty mainboard or a corrupt firmware. I'm hoping it's a corrupt firmware issue because I know that he recently updated his firmware. Therefore, if you have also recently updated your firmware then I would suggest reverting to your original firmware to see if that cures your issue or even try a different power supply. Apart from that, the only other thing I can suggest is to make sure that your lnb cable is not shorting i.e, inner core touching the outer core as this has also been known to cause boxes to freeze and/or continually reboot.

[andy91]

I had the dim 8 on my mates I gave up on it. Tried new psu. Spent 8 hrs and more and wouldn't let me flash any other software.
Good luck with it.

Andy.

[bigade1]

I had the dim 8 on my mates I gave up on it. Tried new psu. Spent 8 hrs and more and wouldn't let me flash any other software.
Good luck with it.

Andy.

Yea, as I already stated I realise from other members posts that it can be a bit hit and miss but for the sake of ?1.50 outlay for a null modem cable - I'm going to give it a go. I've also noticed while doing a bit of research that some members have found that they've only got a result using the " kosat " version of the upgrade software as opposed to the official one. As soon as my cable arrives I'll give it a go ( hopefully, this morning ) and post back and let you know Andy.

[plasterer]

Just keep going with as many softwares as you can till you get one that works
Got a couple here that worked for me on
F5.......Paul

[bigade1]

Yup Andy - you was right ( along with Hadron ). The cable came today, tried 4 or 5 different loaders, various official and clone softwares, different com ports and bit rates without any success. Just for curiosity tried reflashing my own already working box with the original software backup to see if I was using the correct loader and to also make sure the cable wasn't faulty and it worked like a charm. Therefore, I must conclude that on this occasion there must be a hardware fault.

[jaws2]

I had a F3 that died, couldn't get it ter wake up, dug and old PC tower I have with win XP it starting flashing straight away when i used this old pc only thing I did was just connect the power lead and the com port cable didn't put LNB lead on, why it worked I dont know on the older PC but it did, so its safe in the loft if I need it again, I got the original image from the official site not one of my backup I had made, and if i remember correctly it was not the latest image I used

[bigade1]

Yea thanks for the info Jaws - my pc already is an old tower with XP on it ( as well as having a second hard drive with Windows 7 on it ) and I know that can't be the issue because as I already stated I tested it on my own working F5S and it reflashed it straight away.

[Colin070179]

i have reset my mine using rs232 and it seemed to work ok but as soon as i plug in the lnb cable it freezes and box becomes unresponsive. i have tried it on 4 different lnb cables so it cannot be that, i dont know if it makes any difference but as soon as i but the lnb cable in a green light appears on front of box and then 20 seconds lateri have to turn box off.

[Hadron]

i have reset my mine using rs232 and it seemed to work ok but as soon as i plug in the lnb cable it freezes and box becomes unresponsive. i have tried it on 4 different lnb cables so it cannot be that, i dont know if it makes any difference but as soon as i but the lnb cable in a green light appears on front of box and then 20 seconds lateri have to turn box off.

Could this be the LAN problem?

Have a look at this thread:-

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/f184/much-coincidence-400956/

Start reading from bigade1's post #65 for the solution.

[andy91]

Yup Andy - you was right ( along with Hadron ). The cable came today, tried 4 or 5 different loaders, various official and clone softwares, different com ports and bit rates without any success. Just for curiosity tried reflashing my own already working box with the original software backup to see if I was using the correct loader and to also make sure the cable wasn't faulty and it worked like a charm. Therefore, I must conclude that on this occasion there must be a hardware fault.

I bet I was on it 8 hours or more. I did read some people got it working but I'm guessing it depends on what the fault actually is. The dim 8 must account for more than one fault.
I tried every loader and software known to man at different time intervals and go nowhere.
I'm just glad it wasn't my box and was a mates.
Seems a common problem on the newer F5s.
Andy