Freeview box going loopy - ideas?

[Eusebius]

After the solar flares yesterday my freeview box has gone loopy. I can only get Yesterday and Russia Today. The other channels won't engage, or briefly flash and then turn off. The freeview box is a Sony VTX D800U. We have a shared aerial in our flats and other residents were Ok after the flares, which briefly switched off the power in the afternoon (W.London).

Is this the end of the freeview box, or have I missed something? Any fixes I can try?

If I can't watch TV I may have to think about life which could be ghastly.....

Andy

[Paul Herber]

Have you tried retuning it?

[Eusebius]

Switched it off an on several times - no help. tried communal aerial and separate aerial, same problem. channels don't seem to "lock", though some channels just say no signal. A few channels flash on and go off again. No idea what's going on - tried the basic fixes - on/ off, retune etc.

andy

[John Williamson]

Factory reset? There's a link in my post on uk.tech.broadcast.

[Brian Gaff]

Sometimes they need a factory reset. This I hope is in the manual. I'd not blame the flares, more likely a pretty naff aerial system or some kind person has put a emergency services mast near you. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Check the cablesI can recall someone showing me a lead from the socket to the tv once that had been chewed by his mamster when he let itout toplay with its ball. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

when you find out why, I have one dong similar..from 6 months ago.

Only picks up a few stations now.

[The Natural Philosopher]

what manual? long lost..

[Dave Liquorice]

It *might* be the affects of the current geomagnetic storm that is taking place but now much reduced. Signals can get bounced off the aurora giving producing interesting and changing multipath distortion, can muck up analogue TV it'll destroy digital. But if that was the case I'd expect an awful lot of people complaining about the loss of their day time telly...

[tinnews]

By that do you mean you unplugged it and left it for a minute or so before plugging back in, or did you just turn it off with its own switch or remote?

[Eusebius]

I've left it off and unplugged for a while, reconnected, retuned, restored factory settings, retuned. Three channels working. They show about 80% signal strength and 100% signal quality. The rest come on for a split second and then the screen goes black - something switches off. In that mode, can't get menu or anything - it's just off even though the green light is on.

Any suggestions for a good freeview box? I'm sick of this unless I can find a fix.

andy

[Newshound]

Perhaps a mast-head amplifier has blown (but rest of block has more sensitive tuners)?

Try Amazon for user reviews.

Supermarket A/V "cheapies" tend to be low end performance IME.

[The Natural Philosopher]

almost identical symptoms to mine..could only get one mux - the others had vanished. I suspect a blown RF stage. No idea why.

[Dave Liquorice]

[The Other Mike]

You'll need to change the valves.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes its the picture valve.. grin

On the other hand, someone showed me an old On digital box that had stopped working due to the interestingly named Split nit issue, and it was shaped like a wedge, and I feel this was very innovative design, to make it able tobe used as a door wedge after its primary use has ended. Brian

[tony sayer]

Any chance of borrowing a known good working one for test?..