Sky recalling 90,000 HD boxes

IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION that UK satellite broadcasting giant Sky is quietly recalling and replacing up to 90,000 high definition PVR set top boxes.

The devices, which were manufactured by Pace, and look identical to those built by Thomson and Amstrad (which are OK) are said to have a major manufacturing flaw which causes gradual damage to the unit's hard drive, and may in some cases lead to complete failure.

As far as we can tell there is no safety aspect to the recall and Sky is reported to be working through a list of affected users as we speak. Because of the numbers involved, which could represent up to 10 per cent of all HD subscribers, it is expected to be up to three months before... erm... total recall.

It seems that Sky was trying to keep the whole sorry affair under wraps but every Sky user forum on the Internet is buzzing rumour and speculation.

One posting attributed to the Sky+ HD team said, "Pace told us about a manufacturing fault that can affect around 90,000 of the first Sky+HD boxes that it supplied. The fault was resolved in Pace’s subsequent supplies of boxes.

"To be 100 per cent clear, it’s nothing to with a faulty component; the problem relates to the way that some of the boxes were assembled. It doesn’t raise a safety risk or prevent them from being used as normal until we exchange them, but in the longer term it could lead to the failure of the box.

"We’re not happy about customers having boxes that don’t meet our quality standards. So we want to swap all of the boxes in this batch.

"We started calling the affected customers earlier this week to fix an appointment for one of our engineers to come and install a free replacement box. Because of the number of boxes, it will take us about three months to contact everyone. The box can continue to be used as normal until we come to replace it."

Quite how a problem with assembly would affect the operation of a hermetically-sealed hard drive supplied by another manufacturer is a bit puzzling, but I'm sure all will become clear.

So, how do you know if your box is one of the broken ones? Just follow our easy-to-digest, step-by-step guide:

Press the SERVICES button

Press 4 or scroll to SYSTEM SETUP and press SELECT

Press 5 or scroll to SYSTEM DETAILS and press SELECT

As you can see, the INQ's Sky box is a perfectly healthy model made by Thomson, but if yours is made my Pace and has a model number between 9F3001 and 9F3004, then the nice folks from Sky should be calling you shortly.

What you should also know is that, if you have moved house, or changed your phone number Sky probably won't make any further effort to contact you so, if that's the case, we suggest you get on the phone now.

And if you've done what many of our geeky friends have already done, and replaced the paltry supplied hard drive with something a bit more manly, it's probably time to get the tool kit out again. µ