Yellow House / Ebay con

[bammy]

I got stitched up on ebay and bought a yellow house card which is not delivering FTV channels and just reports 'NO CARD' in the system details menu. When sky turn these off, is there no way back - i.e. do they literally send a signal to the card tellsing it to self-distruct? Or could they technically turn it back on but just choose not to?

I've seen people selling 'miracle cures' for inactive cards but I assume these will only work where the card number is still being reported and presumably just boil down to leaving the card in stream for a few hours, which I don't think is going to work in this case.

Any sky techies out there able to advise? thanks

 

[ivrm]

I got stitched up on ebay and bought a yellow house card which is not delivering FTV channels and just reports 'NO CARD' in the system details menu. When sky turn these off, is there no way back - i.e. do they literally send a signal to the card tellsing it to self-distruct? Or could they technically turn it back on but just choose not to?

I've seen people selling 'miracle cures' for inactive cards but I assume these will only work where the card number is still being reported and presumably just boil down to leaving the card in stream for a few hours, which I don't think is going to work in this case.

Any sky techies out there able to advise? thanks

I had this problem with a genuine subs card when I upgraded the box to a sony digibox.

I had to do a system reset at the mains and forced down load .
the card was then seen by the box but only FTV had to ring Sky to get them to OTA reinitialize the card then all OK

 

[pinkhelmets]

first of all i agree with ivrm that you will need to update your receiver first. The message that you havent got a card in the box usually means a receiver fault not a card fault, and generally it is because you are running old software and not had the box connected for a long while. Forcing a software download should cure.
Next with regards to a ftv card not active, you dont need to phone sky to get it switched on again, you just leave it in a working digibox on a free channel and it will update itself.
At the moment i dont think you have been conned.

I've seen people selling 'miracle cures' for inactive cards but I assume these will only work where the card number is still being reported and presumably just boil down to leaving the card in stream for a few hours, which I don't think is going to work in this case.

That is exactly what people are selling, the information that you can leave a card in a working box and it switches back on without phoning sky.

 

[bammy]

Tried in two boxes - a Grundig and a Panasonic. I did a forced software update on both boxes, both boxes report 'NO CARD' in the system details menu (but both boxes report the correct card number when I insert an earlier pale blue card). So I'm pretty sure the card has been zapped - question is can it be 'unzapped'?

 

[pinkhelmets]

ok if you can read other cards but not this one then it is a broken card. It has not been 'zapped' 'no card' means it is internally damaged and therefore beyond repair. I would now say that you may have been conned . Return it to the ebayer for full refund unless it was sold as unworking.

 

[bammy]

Needless to say he doesn't want to know - 'I never said it was working'

 

[bammy]

Major Breakthrough!!

As reported above, my yellow house card was reported as 'NO CARD' in the system details and leaving it in stream for a couple of days had no effect, so I thought why not shove it in the card programmer and do a repair... guess what it worked!!!! Tried it with another one since with the same effect!!!

 

[ivrm]

As reported above, my yellow house card was reported as 'NO CARD' in the system details and leaving it in stream for a couple of days had no effect, so I thought why not shove it in the card programmer and do a repair... guess what it worked!!!! Tried it with another one since with the same effect!!!

So tell us more what programmer and which program did youuse to revive it with?

 

[raptor214]

Can't get my head around that one, Hahahahahahahahahahhha.

 

[raptor214]

Hello ivrm, i see you, what do you think then, regards.

 

[bammy]

The Plot Thickens

As reported above, the two previously 'Dead' cards seemed to come alive with the help of a programmer, and were then left in a third box (Amstrad) where over a 24 hour period the ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4 & Channel 5 slowly camr back to life one by one. So both cards will now work 100% as FTV cards in the Amstrad. The bizarre thing is that when I put the cards into the Grundig / Panasonic they are still reporting 'NO CARD' in the system details menu and saying 'There is a problem with your card' if I try to select any non-FTA channel. How can this be? Surely the card is either working or it isn't; it shouldn't work in some boxes and not others?

 

[pinkhelmets]

so we now go back to the begining and make the first suggestion again- your digibox software is outdated and must be upgraded. If the Grundig and Panasonic both have old software versions then they will not read any card, but your Amstrad must have more modern software inside and will read cards no problem.

If you press 'Serives' - '4' - '5' you will be able to read your EPG software version. Post here what it says and that will help to clear this up.

 

[bammy]

I did do a forced update on the Grundig and the Panasonic (i.e. power off / hold backup in / power on until message appears on screen). However it may be that this didn't work?

The Grundig is reporting O/S 1.2S.3Bu, EPG 2.7a.2*

The Panasonic is reporting O/S 1.2S4Ba, EPG 2.7bb.5*

 

[bammy]

I've done a forced update on both boxes again - the Grundig has now gone to EPG 3*** so is now working. I've done the Panasonic a futher two times but it's still stuck on the version listed above (so not working).

 

[pinkhelmets]

sometimes if the box software is very old, like this Panasonic is, then you are not able to force a download. You really need to get the box receiving a signal and leave it running for a few weeks on the same channel without pressing ANY buttons, then it will hopefully be automatically loaded with correct software. If you do not have a chance to do that then you can keep trying to force a download every now and then and you may get lucky, or take it to a sky official repairer and pay for software upgrade.

 

[bammy]

ok thanks for the advice - off on my hols soon so will leave it connected whilst I'm away and see what happens.

 

[bammy]

one more question @pinkhelmets (or anyone else in the know) - well three actually!:

- is this a 'blind' hope or have you ever actually seen this work - ie leaving the box on stream to get the software uodate - plenty of anecdotal evidence on the web that this is a known problem (it's a TSUDB31)?
- if i leave a card on stream which says it is not authorised, will it evenually come alive for ftv?
- pace 2500s3 stuck in standby - I assume this is a scrapper? (only cost £2.50 so no great loss). I believe most likely to be the zif tuner, but are there any other known causes?

as you can guess, I'm on a steep learning curve - I'm getting boxes / cards for a friend who runs a guest house in France who is looking to kit out his guest rooms (and for the avoidance of doubt, I am NOT a trader, just trying to do someone a favour). Some purcahses have worked, others haven't, so I'm trying to reduce the number of failures. I'm not really up on sky technical issues so any advice most gratefully received.

 

[pinkhelmets]

is this a 'blind' hope or have you ever actually seen this work - ie leaving the box on stream to get the software uodate - plenty of anecdotal evidence on the web that this is a known problem (it's a TSUDB31)?

It is a 'blind' hope really m8, but worth the attempt because sky are currently sending all latest upgrades over the air now as we are in a change-over period. You may be lucky and get upgraded, but if you dont then at least you tried at the best time.

if i leave a card on stream which says it is not authorised, will it evenually come alive for ftv?

Generally yes. If a card has not been updated for a while you can leave it on a stream and it will update. Stolen cards or ones that were never switched on will not update.

pace 2500s3 stuck in standby - I assume this is a scrapper? (only cost £2.50 so no great loss). I believe most likely to be the zif tuner, but are there any other known causes?

Have you tried forcing a software update on this one? That can sometimes make it kick itself out of standby, but if not then yes its one for the scrap and no point trying to work out what has blown inside. If it does not come out of standby it means it is not passing its initialising self-diagnostic test and could really be caused by anything so just bin it.