BT Smart Hub 2 has trashed my Sky Q

[DQuinn]

Hi All,

Since installing my new BT Smart Hub 2 with one Wifi Disc, my Sky Q now loses connection constantly and has become so unstable that it is now completely unusable.  I have tried many of the ideas on many of the posts of people reporting this issue on both BT's site and Sky's, but so far I have not had more than 12 hours of patchy service before it completely gives up.  

I currently have the Sky Q Mini plugged directly into the disc and the main Sky Q box hardwired into the Smart Hub.  I have also turned off 2.4Ghz channel as I would normally have split the channels but on the new BT hardware you cannot do this anymore.  I don't have any older equipment so this should not be too detrimental.

Is there any help or advice from anyone out there who may be able to get this working?  Also is there a way to force the Smart Hub 2 to update its firmware, its the only thing I haven't tried pretty much so far.

What would be good would be some type of statement from BT announcing any known incompatibilities.  Or in fact, if it should work.  My Sky Q equipment is up to date as of this morning,  As you can imagine, the family are getting pretty upset with the TV not working correctly for the 3rd day.

Thanks

[imjolly]

You cannot update the hub firmware manually.  The firmware update is automatic and you just need to ensure hub connected 24/7

what have you actually tried save asking you try things already done

others posting about sky Q connection problems appeared to solve the problem after few attempts

[VeteranISPUser]

Hi @DQuinn 

if you have the Main Sky Q box connected to the SH2 by Ethernet then that should work without problems (I have exactly the same). Are you saying you are having problems with the Main Sky Q box?

The Mini needs to connect to the Main box. The default is using the Sky Q Mesh on the 5GHz band. I’ve never heard of anybody connecting the Mini to a Disc (Main box yes). The Main box provides the Mini with internet access, not the Disc unless the Mini is connected to the Router also by Ethernet.

If the WiFi distance between Main and Mini is too great then Sky provide a booster. Why have you turned off the 2.4 GHz band, the Main box uses the 2.4 GHz band as a backup to the Ethernet connection.

[DQuinn]

Ok,

Thanks for the firmware tip.

At the moment, the main Sky Q box is playing up.  I think that is my main problem.  The mini has always reported that the network is all good, just keeps loosing connection to the main box.  The main box, now just keeps coming up with Technical fault on the channel and the general stability of the system is all over the place.  

I have tried:

Unplugging both boxes, this allowed me to use Sky with intermittent drop outs for around 12 hours.  Then it dropped and died completely.

I then tried the current set up which was to hardwire the disc to the mini box and the hub to the main box.  This again worked for about 12 hours then became flaky again.  The BT app shows that the two devices are connected via Ethernet.  

When stability of network attached devices becomes dodgy, on my previous BT Hubs (and I have had most), I would split the SSID's and have a 2.4 SSID and a 5 SSID.  This normally worked.  But this is no longer an option with the SH2 which is why I turned off the 2.4 network as I don't use it for anything.  

I factory reset the mini box and again that worked for a couple of hours.  Then it stopped again.

What I may try, is just going back to WiFi on the mini, ethernet on the main and start from the beginning again, making sure that both devices are both attached to the same devices on the same frequency.  I think this may have been something I didn't check before I started reading the forums (sometimes a curse as you can go for the nuclear option before doing the basics).

Failing this, I may have to go back to my stable Home Hub 6.

The kids are watching a film off Netflix at the moment so can't try anything right now, but will go back to the standard configuration and then wait for some instructions.  I will also report my firmware versions etc just for BT to be aware and to see if it is a Firmware conflict on the BT gear and the Sky gear for future fault finding.

Thanks,

[Paul_31]

Have you turned off Smart Setup on the BT Hub? FWIW Sky Q and the SmartHub should work happily together - I’ve got a SmartHub 2 and a couple of Complete WiFi discs working reliably with Sky Q. Initially the Sky kit was connected via WiFi - with that setup I had both 2.4 and the 5.0 WiFi networks enabled, but I turned off Smart Channels on the hub and set the 2.4 network to Channel 1 and the 5.0 to Channel 48, to avoid clashes with the channels the Q uses.

 I’ve now connected both the main Q and mini boxes via ethernet and turned off the Sky Q WiFi using the hidden menu, and all works reliably. The main Q box is connected to the SmartHub and the mini is connected to one of the WiFi discs. I only switched to full ethernet once the hub firmware had updated to v0.15.00.06145-BT and the discs to v0.15.00.05300 as prior to that the mini Q connected unreliably. Since the latest firmware installed it’s been rock solid. 

[DQuinn]

Thanks for those tips and its nice to know what I attempted has worked elsewhere.  I will turn the 2.4 back on and spread the channels as you described.  I think, as I now believe that the mini Q is not connecting due to the main box failing, I will also go back to the normal configuration of WiFi for the mini, and Ethernet for the main.  I will also post the versions in the next reply and update.

[DQuinn]

Oh yeah, and smart setup was turned off pretty much as soon as I turned on the new Hub.

[DQuinn]

Ok,

I am now pretty convinced that my Main Sky Q box is either on its way out, or gone already.  I was stuck in a boot loop when I rebooted my entire system (from router, to hub, to main sky Q to mini) so it went through the Hello -> Grey Screen -> Blue Screen for a long period of time and then looped back to the start again about 4 times (over 40 minutes).

Eventually I found a way of forcing a (re?)install of the firmware by cold booting the box whilst holding the power button.  This took a while but the display was different, updating software 1 of 2, was displayed and after 5 mins went to updating software 2 of 2 which took around 15 minutes (which the full screen text warned me about).  The screen then went to its blue, press home button when screen goes blank which it stayed on for around 5 mins.  This time when it rebooted, it went to the menu.  The TV started up again as good as new (bit sluggish but putting that down to download EPG data etc).

Went upstairs and everything connected fine on WiFi.  Unfortunately, the EPG data is taking an age (only the schedules for BBC 1 so far) and not TV as yet, I expect when I go back up, it will have the Technical Fault screen up once more.

I think that the main box is failing as a network host, amongst other things, so I will call Sky tomorrow.  Unless the mini box suddenly starts working.

[SParky2010]

I just had a very similar issue at my parents house

4 x white whole Wi-Fi discs and the sky q box would constantly connect and disconnect

a look at the logs on the Wi-Fi discs gave an error code which, after much digging, suggested something with the 2 different bands

obviously with whole Wi-Fi you cannot separate the networks and it looks like the discs are trying to force the sky a box to use the 5ghz (or whatever it is) range instead of the 2.4

after much playing around I needed up using a wired connection for it

they also have a sky q mini which cannot connect directly to the main box via Wi-Fi however it does see it on the whole home Wi-fi and connects ok, occasional drop outs for I believe the same reason as the main box so will also be making that one wired

long story short, sky q and by whole hone Wi-fi do. It like each other and no way to resolve as you can no longer separate the bands 

[Wpdickson]

I had sky Q fitted this week (feb 2020) and it has been a total nightmare and like many people have reported it keeps losing internet connection for no reason.

I am a sky diamond customer so I gave them a call to say it’s dreadful and want to go back to HD as I can’t be running round all day resetting and reloading all the mini boxes. I was on the phone to Sky 2 hours and spoke to 6 different people to get it sorted. They said it would take a month to get an engineer out and go back to HD, which is a joke.

Anyway the last gentleman I spoke to who was very senior at sky opened up to me as he could tell I was at my wits end. He basically said this is a known problem with the Q box and whilst some people might get lucky and get it working with BT broadband the vast majority aren’t so lucky and it simply will never work correctly. I said this is crazy and why on earth didn’t you say this before selling it . He said when they first launched it it was only available with sky broadband as that’s the only way it would work. They then came up with a work round and this is where we are today. He said the issue isn’t BT or broadband or wi fi it’s a system issue with the box. So again I asked so what your saying is all of us that have these issues we must reset it every time and the simple answer is yes. It might work for a day or a week but he said it’s often a daily problem! He said most people to solve it either go to sky broadband (nice way to get people to switch!!) or they give up like me and go back to HD and all the hassle that involves.

so I have read all the comments and great for those that managed, somehow to fix it, but from what sky themselves told me the two of them  just aren’t stable and compatible some work like comments on here but he said  the vast majority don’t . He did say sky are looking at how to fix this at the moment but I said I have been reading about this going back ages so it appears they can’t come up with a solution. Again he said he has no idea but he said it is known Within sky that Bt and sky q is a big issue and repeated its a problem with the box not BT broadband and they are still scratching there head . So now I have to wait a month to go back to HD and wish they would have asked me which broadband I had. What a farce! Suspect people will say what difference does it make, and I asked the same question and he said it it’s only BT the box has the issues with. He said he spends all day dealing with just this issue, I got the feeling he was sick to death of it as he knew he couldn’t fix it!

In fact he talked me round connecting the mini boxes again so I was running up and down and by the time the last one was working the master box lost internet connection and then one by one they all collapsed. He said the mesh between the boxes is really strong and it’s the internet connection between the master box and the router and if this drops the it’s a domino effect they all go. And I said so what do we do. And he said start again, which we did and it’s working. He then said it will go again it’s just when, most likely I’m the morning. They simply cannot fix it and he said that to me and said he didn’t blame me going back to HD as most people do if they don’t change broadband provider! 

so Back to HD and a month with dodgy televisions!