My Sky box has a "no signal message" - what do I do?
If you are getting the message "no signal" this would indicate that there is a problem with the signal from your dish into your box. Even without a card inserted into a Sky Digibox, if there is a signal, you will always get Sky Guide and the free channels.
Try powering off your box, remove the card, check carefully the cables, especially the connection to the dish, reapply the power and then when asked to insert your card you should then be able to see (for example) Sky News on 501 and the BBC News channel on 503.
Once you can see any channel, reinsert your card. This should, after about one minute, give you the channels you expect, such as 103, 104 and 105.
There are three ways you can attempt to reset your box. Please see
What can my do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' ?.
If you continue to get "No signal", you dish may have been misaligned, or there may be a fault with the cables and connectors, or a problem with the Digibox. You can see the signal strength by pressing SERVICES, then 4-SYSTEM SETUP and 6-SIGNAL STRENGTH.
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JaySunday 29 April 2007 9:53AM
the only channal i can not get is channal five and sky three .i have a feesat card but am useing my old sky box.is the any thing i can do.thank you jayBriantistSunday 29 April 2007 12:42PM
Jay: You need to call FreesatfromSky on 0870-606 1111 to reactivate the card.callumWednesday 19 September 2007 5:53PM
that did not workcallum: What didn't work? A little bit of snow and i cant get a signal! Now I have to spend my evening surfing the net and posting useless comments on this site....... hmmm, or maybe I should be signing up with virgin media, just to cover my back. As there is a possability it could snow again! frank forberMonday 25 February 2008 11:46AM
I had similar problem only getting bbc1 and bbc2, not even radio stations.
You should reset your software by going to the following site and clicking on the appropriate question.
SJS Television Services-notfound
It takes about 12 minutes and cleared fault for me. SimonWednesday 26 March 2008 6:30PM
I was receiving this error so I rang SKY. They straight away said it was an LNB error and they were going to charge me £65 for a replacement. Instead of paying this I had a quick search on Google. Went on to my DigiBox's installer menu, turned the LNB power and 22khz settings off, saved, and then turned them back on. VOILA! It was fixed, no replacment LNB, just two minuted on Google!nickMonday 2 June 2008 5:51PM
i cant have sky and i cant have freewiew . can i get freesat? im desperate .and ntl is coming by the end of next year .............nick: Why can't you have Sky? Mary CheneyThursday 20 November 2008 2:21AM
Kettering Thank you for your reply to my question of bad reception on Freeview channels. I have done the reset 1, 2 and 3 as you suggested but no luck. The message o n the screen is 'No satellite signal is being received'. Any ideas for me please. Do I have to buy a freeview card or Sky card as this comes through my Sky digibox?MichaelTuesday 2 December 2008 11:06PM
bring back analogue tv and save yourselves a fortune :)Michael: Like analogue satellite was reliable! faeMonday 29 December 2008 3:18PM
My digibox just sits in standby mode and wont turn on or off (unless unplugged of course). I noticed last week it kept switching itself to standby but always came on with the Sky remote - now there is nothing - any suggestions please?fae: Have you changed the batteries in the remote? faeMonday 29 December 2008 4:28PM
The batteries are fine and I have also used the remote from the digibox downstairs - it's odd that it kept putting itself on standby when not being used last week - now the light just stays red and won't go green.faeMonday 29 December 2008 8:05PM
Ye I think so too - just want a cheapy one tho so I can get BBC and ITV - any available in Spain or do I have to get one brought over?MichaelWednesday 31 December 2008 1:07AM
Fae By any chance is it made by Bush?faeWednesday 31 December 2008 7:36PM
No, its an Amstrad. I did manage to download software since but it did not turn itself on after the update. Then, when I wiggled the scartlead the green light came on and searched for listings and found channels but I stupidly turned it off to put the viewing card in and it wouldn't turn back on again - I give up!!! fae: Can you try method 3 above again? faeWednesday 31 December 2008 8:53PM
I tried again but all the lights are lit and it just goes thru the motions of updating then doesn't turn itself on when it has finished as it should......fae: How do you know that it has finished? Does the box restart? faeThursday 1 January 2009 1:33PM
After about 10 mins the update message goes off the screen and all the lights go out apart from the red standby light - the box does not restartfae: OK. This usually happens when the box can't find the update because it beleives there is no signal. Can you check the connectors are in good order (with the power off) and try again? faeThursday 1 January 2009 7:15PM
Well, the green light came on but no blue screen.Unplugged the scart lead and plugged it back in and voila, suddenly the searching for listings screen appeared, brought up the channels so I inserted the card and all seems fine now! Why would this happen after all this time and fiddling and can I assume now that all is ok??fae: It does sound very odd, but at least you found out how to fix it. I hope it stays working properly for you now. faeFriday 2 January 2009 2:22PM
We wonder if it was 'upset' by a power cut we had at the weekend while we were out - seems to tie in timewise so could this be the reason?fae: It certainly should not be the case, but hardware can get damaged by repeated power failures, overloads and brown-outs. johnFriday 9 January 2009 8:20PM
Can sky cut off free channels as i cannot find any signal? I have also tried setting up a second dish which I have hand held to try and find a signal without success. john: No, but your box could be broken... richard marsdenWednesday 28 January 2009 6:42PM
I have sky+ downstairs and in my bedroom have an old sky box connected to a tv with freeview built in which is no longer on contract. Because of the poor reception I do not have a terrestrial arial and rely entirely on digital. I have constant problems with the box upstairs (freezing, no signal, technical problem) and wondered if i's possible to connect the sky dish directly to the tv and pick up either freeview channels or the free channels from skyRONALD ELLIOTTSaturday 21 March 2009 9:15AM
Harwich HI. My standard Sky Box keeps going on Standby could someone advise Cure for this problem.kevin longstaffTuesday 14 April 2009 6:25PM
I`m getting `no sat. sig. being recieved`.
On `services` no signal strength or quality
Can someone please help?
thanks K. ReidTuesday 26 May 2009 10:55PM
I've read and followed all these instructions and i still cannot get my satellite dish to tune in. I did the install myself with the help of my brother and spent about 14 hours at it, really going crazy. What do the numbers on the screen mean sometimes they are zeros and then just random. Could someone be kind enough to point me in the right direction.JordyTuesday 26 May 2009 11:25PM
Reid, Hi, get someone in with proper metering equipment to align it properly for you... Lot less pain in the long run.
You'll have to be much more specific than random, they should say 0002 07d4 and OK on the screen. When she locks the bars will move, sit someone in front of screen and tell you when it's locked then you adjust the quality which is what matters... Simple checks, is the dish bracket straight and the declination set to around the 20 mark at the back of the dish, is the lnb (small box in front of the dish) on tight with pin in place, does the cables have plenty of braid and connected properly to the dish input(s). Happy hunting...
ReidWednesday 27 May 2009 1:22PM
Thanks for all that but none of it has helped it's still got a blue screen with "No satellite signal is being recieved" Got an hd box for the football tonight is just nothing. Those numbers are not on the screen its just all zero's and really annoying. Could you help again or someone else please.JordyWednesday 27 May 2009 3:07PM
Reid - On the blue screen in the top corner there should be two small numbers what are they?yousafMonday 15 June 2009 12:13AM
i hav sky+dvb box
bat tha signal is bad?
G.yousaf yousafMonday 15 June 2009 12:20AM
tell me tha betar satlliet for sky+dvb boxRichardThursday 8 October 2009 2:17PM
I have an 80cm dish and a Humax HD PVR. FreeSat reception is great as usual on most channels but Zone Horror (one of my favourites!) seems to have taken a dive. I press the "i" button to get the signal strength/quality bar display and I can see that it is now down in the red section, with consequent signal breakup. What might cause just a few channels to get worse like this?Richard: Zone Horror is on the Eurobird satellite at 28.5 degrees East, very close to the Astra 2 cluster at 28.2 degrees East.
The beam for the transponder that Zone Horror is on - 
Eurobird 1 at 28.5°E - LyngSat Maps - has a slightly different footprint to the Astra satellite.
You may need to align the dish very VERY very slightly to get good reception from Eurobird 1.
It is quite "within specification" to receive from both satellite clusters. RichardFriday 9 October 2009 9:54AM
Thanks, Briantist. The idea of turning my dis a couple of tenths of a degree anticlockwise is a bit daunting, but I might try it with the aid of a laser pointer and a small mirror. RichardSunday 11 October 2009 10:11PM
Thanks, Briantist. I borrowed a signal meter from my brother when setting up the dish initially. Since I only wanted to make a slight adjustment, I used the laser pointer and stuck a little mirror on the dish with blu-tack, it reflected the spot back onto a card next to the pointer. I calculated that 0.1 degrees dish deflection would be equivalent to a spot movement of 11 mm and marked the existing spot positions and target position with pencil on the card. It was then easy to nudge the dish around very accurately. I also made a vertical adjustment and now I'm satisfied with my signal again. josh pomeroyMonday 16 November 2009 12:14AM
fantastic, it worked thankyou andrew dewarWednesday 6 January 2010 2:53PM
we have no signal(Surrey/Haants area. havethe unplugbox message which we have done several ties still no joy. Have moved the snow away from dish. Is this a national issue due to weather?
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