I've just discovered this thread, I'm having identical problems (it's a 160gb drive installed by Simply Digital). It looks like the fix isn't a fix. So have Sky actually acknowledged a problem?
Interesting timing - freesat+ is released this weekend!
I have just found this thread after experiencing this problem for the last few days. I tried the planner rebuild and full system reset but this did not solve the problem.
I had put a 250 gb drive in and assumed this must have developed a fault so I put the original 40 gb drive back in and this appears to have solved the problem.
This not a long term issue because I will get the new Freesat+ box in the next view days.
After a number of cold restartss (unplug etc), the problem would still appear the next morning. I have decieded to disable the 'power save' function. Hence when it comes out of standby (initiated by me - not the sky software) the 'please wait' problem is now solved.
I can only assume there is a conflict with the over night 'power save' function and the latest software download.
I thought my box was on its way out until I found this thread. I've been having this problem since the beginning of the week. I've got a Pace V2 still with it's original 160gb drive.
Just spoke to the lovely Sky CS - the bloke inspired no confidence whatsoever - after I explained the issue, he asked me if I wanted to upgrade to Sky Sports or Movies! (bring on Freesat+)... Anyway, he did say that they know about the bug and are working on it. They will give me a call back about it in the next couple of days. Allegedly.
I too have been experiencing this issue. Pace 3100 PVR2 with Samsung 250Gb V120CE drive. Box was August 2004 and HDD upgrade (myself) in November 2005. This problem started intermittently about 5 days ago and slowly got to the point where no power recycling/reset/software update would restore the box to its former glory.
In addition to the planner not coming up, none of the Sky+ Set Up options get saved if they are changed. "Save settings" produces the same "Please Wait" message. Live pause same message. Instant record same message.
Now, being the inveterate tinkerer that I am, and without the above plethora of similar issues, I concluded that the HDD had developed a fault. So I took the 250Gb Samsung out and hooked it up to a PC and booted off floppies and ran Partition Magic to check the disk. Partition Magic reported an error on the Master Boot Record and the format of the disk was unknown. More importantly Partition Magic couldn't do anything with the disk at all. I couldn't check errors; couldn't delete the partition; couldn't even format it. To all intents and purposes the disk was stuffed.
Fortunately Samsung have a 3 year warranty and logged on for a warranty replacement using the serial number. I posted it on Wednesday this week and I got a replacement this afternoon! Way to go Samsung.
Whilst waiting for this new drive (400GB 7200rpm, so not a "CE" drive") I popped in a spare 80Gb Samsung I had. On rebooting I had the same problem, but a couple of power recycles and resets and it did work, but I guess I hadn't deleted the windows partition first and the box needed to format it. It worked ..... for a while. Now it too will not record and has the same symptoms as the 250Gb drive had, and same error messages.
I have a suspicion that if I put back in the original 40Gb drive that all may be well. I hope the "bug" is not one which renders the hard drive useless by erroneously writing to the master boot sector of the HDD. And to any HDD over the original 40Gb standard limit.
I'll phone Sky help center and I hope I get a friendly Scots lady or gentlemen.
I spoke to Sky about this and they are aware of the problem, they said to do the power off, remove the card, power on, put in card, but it doesn't work on the early versions of sky+ boxes...the fix issued by sky is to leave the box turned on and turn off the auto-standby.
Cant remember the version of my box but its an old Pace with the 40gb disk, and no anytime.
i have the sme problem when trying to series link programmes into the planner i got a pace 6.2.03 with EPG 5.04.e which is somthing like a few years old. i would like to upgrade to sky HD but being on a low income does not allow this to happen,& as this thread op rightly says ,an engineer would cost badly.how can i put this right ,after going through all the steps taken by thread op has already done?
i have the sme problem when trying to series link programmes into the planner i got a pace 6.2.03 with EPG 5.04.e which is somthing like a few years old. i would like to upgrade to sky HD but being on a low income does not allow this to happen,& as this thread op rightly says ,an engineer would cost badly.how can i put this right ,after going through all the steps taken by thread op has already done?
Just leave it switched on until they fix it...but the more people who phone sky and complain the better, then they'll know its a major problem and not just a few boxes.
dont pay for an engineer for nothing, he'll not be able to fix it, unless he replaces your box with a later version, but then £65 goes a long way to a new box off evilbay anyway....
Just leave it switched on until they fix it...but the more people who phone sky and complain the better, then they'll know its a major problem and not just a few boxes.
dont pay for an engineer for nothing, he'll not be able to fix it, unless he replaces your box with a later version, but then £65 goes a long way to a new box off evilbay anyway....
well i might just do that.obvously everyones in the same boat here. £65 is alot of money for an eginneer when you don't have it.but having said that ,if you upgraded to HD thats just an extra £10 ? plus the extra £10 amonth on subcribtion which at the moment i pay around £22.00 ,which would go up to i think £33.00 with the HD service.i think sky does carry some sort of warrenty on these machines but they last for about 12 months
get an HD box, if you want, you dont have to have the HD subscription to use it, just need to call sky to match the viewing card to the box and you'll be as you are now...and can upgrade to HD channels if you like at a later date
get an HD box, if you want, you dont have to have the HD subscription to use it, just need to call sky to match the viewing card to the box and you'll be as you are now...and can upgrade to HD channels if you like at a later date
right didn't know that,well i'll give sky a call later ,& enquire within:)
Got mine working from advice on here and the other thread, but decided to phone Sky CS to find out when they would fix the software problem.
Fortunately the call cost me nothing (courtesy of saynoto0870) as it took 50 minutes speaking to 4 different people.
Foolishly on my part I followed their advice and ended up with the problem returning - but solved it again later.
The conclusion from their more senior adviser- alarmingly - was that the problem only affected boxes with HD upgaded (like mine) and no solution would become available!
well i am still waiting to sort the problem out with sky,as i got to get a window of time when the planner is not busy with programme recording. the other problem i get is programme clashes caused by the box.hence now i have to make use off site like iplayer,itv catch etc,the only pig here is itv catch up on my pc is playing up ,as a resault now missed now 1983.i have already email itv over this as i have no problem with iplayer or the channel 4 verson just itvi will try sort out sky tomorrow
As I started this thread I feel a little responsible for the fact that there is a post on it that leads to Sky's article on the subject - which is wrong.
The crucial part of the fix is not as they describe. You need to remove the card, and do the usual power reset procedure with the card out. I followed their procedure to the letter (which meant not removing the card) and it did not resolve the issue.
If anyone from Sky is reading this, please escalate the fact its wrong as people less technical than some of us read this forum and will waste valuable hours of their lives. I've fed back to Sky myself but their agility at responding to these things (ignoring their failed testing strategy) could perhaps be better.
On the bright side it seems the solution did come from them
As I started this thread I feel a little responsible for the fact that there is a post on it that leads to Sky's article on the subject - which is wrong.
The crucial part of the fix is not as they describe. You need to remove the card, and do the usual power reset procedure with the card out. I followed their procedure to the letter (which meant not removing the card) and it did not resolve the issue.
If anyone from Sky is reading this, please escalate the fact its wrong as people less technical than some of us read this forum and will waste valuable hours of their lives. I've fed back to Sky myself but their agility at responding to these things (ignoring their failed testing strategy) could perhaps be better.
On the bright side it seems the solution did come from them
It's sort of academic, but there was never a requirement to remove the viewing card in order to reboot the box to work around the "Please Wait" problem.
It looks as though most people have had their boxes rolled back to the previous version, so thankfully we can draw a line under this issue for now.
is removing the viewing card & taking the plug out supposed to help we boot the sky + box & correct the isue?
With the "latest" software, when you encountered "Please Wait", if you unplugged the box, waited, plugged it back in, and brought it out of standby straight away, that would work around the problem and give you access to the planner. There was no need to mess around with the card (after having a regular Sky box get picky with reading the card, I'm always reluctant to remove the card unnecessarily). Switching off the auto-standby feature prevented the box from going into standby on its own, and going into standby was the root of the problem.
The software has now been rolled back to the previous version, and so we aren't suffering from the problem now.
It provided a temporary fix to get the box working again - although as stated, removing the viewing card wasn't necessary.
Well I had a different issue then. Mine would get the issue again after going into standby. Nothing else, including power resets and forced software updates, resolved it permanently until I did a power reset with the card out...
Comments
Interesting timing - freesat+ is released this weekend!
I had put a 250 gb drive in and assumed this must have developed a fault so I put the original 40 gb drive back in and this appears to have solved the problem.
This not a long term issue because I will get the new Freesat+ box in the next view days.
Sky in my view is very poor value for money.
I can only assume there is a conflict with the over night 'power save' function and the latest software download.
In addition to the planner not coming up, none of the Sky+ Set Up options get saved if they are changed. "Save settings" produces the same "Please Wait" message. Live pause same message. Instant record same message.
Now, being the inveterate tinkerer that I am, and without the above plethora of similar issues, I concluded that the HDD had developed a fault. So I took the 250Gb Samsung out and hooked it up to a PC and booted off floppies and ran Partition Magic to check the disk. Partition Magic reported an error on the Master Boot Record and the format of the disk was unknown. More importantly Partition Magic couldn't do anything with the disk at all. I couldn't check errors; couldn't delete the partition; couldn't even format it. To all intents and purposes the disk was stuffed.
Fortunately Samsung have a 3 year warranty and logged on for a warranty replacement using the serial number. I posted it on Wednesday this week and I got a replacement this afternoon! Way to go Samsung.
Whilst waiting for this new drive (400GB 7200rpm, so not a "CE" drive") I popped in a spare 80Gb Samsung I had. On rebooting I had the same problem, but a couple of power recycles and resets and it did work, but I guess I hadn't deleted the windows partition first and the box needed to format it. It worked ..... for a while. Now it too will not record and has the same symptoms as the 250Gb drive had, and same error messages.
I have a suspicion that if I put back in the original 40Gb drive that all may be well. I hope the "bug" is not one which renders the hard drive useless by erroneously writing to the master boot sector of the HDD. And to any HDD over the original 40Gb standard limit.
I'll phone Sky help center and I hope I get a friendly Scots lady or gentlemen.
This thread was here first anyway.
My box seems to be okay now, two nights without a screw up.:)
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=934809&page=13
Probably near the end
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D
Cant remember the version of my box but its an old Pace with the 40gb disk, and no anytime.
Cliff
Just leave it switched on until they fix it...but the more people who phone sky and complain the better, then they'll know its a major problem and not just a few boxes.
dont pay for an engineer for nothing, he'll not be able to fix it, unless he replaces your box with a later version, but then £65 goes a long way to a new box off evilbay anyway....
well i might just do that.obvously everyones in the same boat here. £65 is alot of money for an eginneer when you don't have it.but having said that ,if you upgraded to HD thats just an extra £10 ? plus the extra £10 amonth on subcribtion which at the moment i pay around £22.00 ,which would go up to i think £33.00 with the HD service.i think sky does carry some sort of warrenty on these machines but they last for about 12 months
right didn't know that,well i'll give sky a call later ,& enquire within:)
Fortunately the call cost me nothing (courtesy of saynoto0870) as it took 50 minutes speaking to 4 different people.
Foolishly on my part I followed their advice and ended up with the problem returning - but solved it again later.
The conclusion from their more senior adviser- alarmingly - was that the problem only affected boxes with HD upgaded (like mine) and no solution would become available!
My model number , version number, epg numbers are all back to what they were b4.
how did they do that?
Check the Model Number. Many seem to have changed.
The crucial part of the fix is not as they describe. You need to remove the card, and do the usual power reset procedure with the card out. I followed their procedure to the letter (which meant not removing the card) and it did not resolve the issue.
If anyone from Sky is reading this, please escalate the fact its wrong as people less technical than some of us read this forum and will waste valuable hours of their lives. I've fed back to Sky myself but their agility at responding to these things (ignoring their failed testing strategy) could perhaps be better.
On the bright side it seems the solution did come from them
It looks as though most people have had their boxes rolled back to the previous version, so thankfully we can draw a line under this issue for now.
Cheers,
Steve.
The software has now been rolled back to the previous version, and so we aren't suffering from the problem now.
Cheers,
Steve.
It provided a temporary fix to get the box working again - although as stated, removing the viewing card wasn't necessary.
Well I had a different issue then. Mine would get the issue again after going into standby. Nothing else, including power resets and forced software updates, resolved it permanently until I did a power reset with the card out...