Sky plus box & possible lightning strike

B

bruno

Guest
Hi,

Has anyone experienced problems with sky+ boxes after a lightening storm. Bad storm in the area last week, phone lines were affected and it would appear the the sky+ box also. The fuse(3A) had blown in the plug, but when replaced with a new 3A fuse, the unit would not power up. I'm thinking that the only reason for this would be a surge through the phone line. Is this possible?

Assuming it is, what is the likely damage, is it worth repairing? What are the likely components that were 'fried' and could they be easily replaced?Would any of the saved programs be accessible from the hard drive?

Regardless of whether or not it was lightening, i guess it wouldn't be a bad idea for anyone having these systems or similar to make sure they have some kind of surge protection. Why this couldn't be done at the factory is beyond me, they remembered to put a fuse in the plug!!

Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks
 
I have all my expensive AV equipment (TV, DVD Recorder, SKY equipment) plugged into a surge protected plug extension. Is it necessary to get something for the phone line as well?
 
My reckoning is that the lightning has three route to your sky box:
  1. Cables from Dish
  2. Electrical Connections
  3. Phoneline - if connected.
The standard surge protection will usually only protect against a surge via the electricity, this leaves the other two paths open to surges. Some extension adaptors will electrical surge protection and may have a phoneline protector (usually for PCs) but even this might not protect against a direct or close lightning strike.
 
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