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AuthorTopic: Divorce Time? (Read 227 times)
wibs
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Divorce Time?
« Thread Started on Nov 4, 2009, 10:01am »
We all know that Sky cards are 'married' to the box they are used in.

My question is:

How long can a SkyBox be powered off for before the card becomes 'divorced' from the Skybox, and you need to call Sky to get it 'married' again?

Wibs
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snap
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #1 on Nov 4, 2009, 10:06am »
Cards normally don't become unpaired after disuse, they just become inactive and don't decode the the channels they are supposed to.
This will happen after about one month of the box being powered off or disconnected from a dish.
Unpairing can occur when a new white card is put into the wrong Sky box first. A call to Sky is needed to get the card paired to the right box again.
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #2 on Nov 4, 2009, 10:48am »

Nov 4, 2009, 10:06am, snap wrote:
Cards normally don't become unpaired after disuse, they just become inactive and don't decode the the channels they are supposed to.
This will happen after about one month of the box being powered off or disconnected from a dish.
Unpairing can occur when a new white card is put into the wrong Sky box first. A call to Sky is needed to get the card paired to the right box again.


My colleague unplugged his Sky+ receiver, with his Sky Sports subscription card in it, and brought it to Germany, on a Sunday. On the Thursday I installed it for him, but when we tried to select Sky Sports 1 (his normal favourite channel) we get this:

[image]

(Ignore the Sky Movies, I just borrowed this image from Google Images, the error message is the same as we got when selecting Sky Sports 1)

The card was removed, cleaned, reinserted, and nothing. We left it in for an hour or so, to see if it became active, but it didn't.

Is this error an example of unpairing, or something else?

Wibs
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nisk
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #3 on Nov 4, 2009, 1:12pm »
A friend of mine had a similar problem with his Canal Digital STB. He bought their upgrade to a recordable HD box and then forgot about the old box for a few weeks. When he finally decided to put it in the bedroom, it would only show uncoded channels. A call to Canal Digital resulted in the recommendation: "leave the box turned on with the card in it for a day or two - it will pair itself again after while". It did. After about 6 hours.

This may not be the same for your problem, but it sounded so similar I thought it might be worth a mention.

//Nisk
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #4 on Nov 4, 2009, 2:36pm »
Did you try the card in another box?
This may be a new characteristic.
I've been using my card in a standard box in the kitchen. Recently it became unpaired from my SkyHD box, which only showed up when I tried to view the free Sky Movies last weekend. ( I don't have Movies or Sports)
It needed a call to Sky to re- pair it. I had assumed that it was because I first put the new card in the wrong box but it's possible there has been a change to the NDS system on the card to stop people moving cards between Sky receivers.
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #5 on Nov 4, 2009, 3:46pm »

Nov 4, 2009, 2:36pm, snap wrote:
Did you try the card in another box?
This may be a new characteristic.
I've been using my card in a standard box in the kitchen. Recently it became unpaired from my SkyHD box, which only showed up when I tried to view the free Sky Movies last weekend. ( I don't have Movies or Sports)
It needed a call to Sky to re- pair it. I had assumed that it was because I first put the new card in the wrong box but it's possible there has been a change to the NDS system on the card to stop people moving cards between Sky receivers.


No, card has not been removed from its Skybox, except for a few seconds while I cleaned it (a piece of soft cloth, not a Brillo Pad!)

I am borrowing the box and card off him this evening, so I will check the status of the non-premium channels, such as Sky 1. Then I will leave it for 48 hours to see if it refreshes itself. If not, then he will have to take it back the week after and get Sky to pair them again.

Wibs

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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #6 on Nov 4, 2009, 10:45pm »
I have had to leave a card for 3 or 4 days before it has reactivated.
The screen shot that you have shown is not the one I get when one of my cards has missed a auto over-air reactivation, I cannot recall the message, but it is a much longer message, text being more of an advert. On reflection I have a couple of cards that were showing your screen shot and they have never reactivated.
Robert
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #7 on Nov 6, 2009, 12:36am »
Just to confirm The message I get and the card reactivates is.

For your information Five US is the bold, enerygenic destination for the pick of American programming etc.

Call the broadcaster to update your subscription.

Checking today I have 7 cards that need reactivating, the strange thing is that channel 5 was active on all cards.
Left card in box on standby at 1400 hrs by 1900hrs 108 174/5/6/7 the 5's were up and running, I have had cards before reactivate in this time of day.
Robert
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wibs
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #8 on Nov 6, 2009, 12:06pm »
UPDATE

I left the box connected at my home for the last couple of days, and when I got home from work last night all channels were now back.

No call to Sky has been made.

Strange to get a 'This is the wrong card for this set-top box' error message though.

Wibs
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Re: Divorce Time?
« Reply #9 on Nov 6, 2009, 2:32pm »
wibs, glad everything is now OK.

For future reference, sometimes when I have had other problems with a digibox I have found that if I have gone into the installers menu.
Services > 401 >select and carried out a new installation install from the menu the problem has been resolved.

Robert
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