Got a call from Nicky as I was leaving work to say that the Sky+ box (Pace PVR2) was stuck in standby, and a power-cycle wouldn’t fix it. Got home and after researching lots of webpages about it I eventually came upon the conclusion that the HD was shagged. Popped another few drives in there and it’s still doing the same thing, so I’m thinking it’s probably the decrypt stuff that’s gone (it successfully goes to a firmware update holding down ‘Back Up’ on poweron but times out, and also won’t do a total reset/housekeeping on the drive).

Anyway, I’ve nabbed another Pace from eBay, a PVR3 in this case, and we’ll see what that brings. I’ll also haul down the spare old Amstrad Sky box from the loft – it should work with the Sky+ card as it stands to get the FTA channels.