There have recently been a rash of problems with Thomson DTi6300 hard disk Top Up TV boxes. The fault typically manifests itself as a box that won’t come out of standby, usually with an orange front-panel light stuck on.
Thomson Top Up TV PVR
The first thing to try is to turn the box off at the mains, leaving it disconnected for 30 sec or so, then turn it back on again. Top Up boxes are quite slow to sort themselves out after a power reset like this, so leave it five or ten minutes before deciding whether that has fixed the problem or not.
If you do still have a problem, the best advice is to try turning the power off and on again. If two power reset attempts have not fixed things, there is another option but unfortunately it involves reformatting the hard drive, which wipes all recordings and setting stored on the disk.
To perform a complete reset and reformat the hard drive follow the steps below. Make sure you have tried the power reset twice just in case it resolves the problem without wiping the recordings.
- Unplug or turn off the mains supply to the box
- Hold in the Standby/Power button on the front panel (NOT on the remote control) then reconnect the mains
- As soon as you see a light flash on the front panel, release the Standby/power button
- Quickly press these arrow buttons one after the other – Up, Down, Left, Right
- You should now see two lights on the front panel – a solid orange light and a flashing green light
- When the green light stops flashing (after about a minute) the hard drive has been reformatted
- After a short wait the box will turn itself on
- If prompted run a channel scan
You have now finished and should be the proud owner of a working Top Up TV box again. If the box is still not working, or if you can’t complete all the steps above, it is possible that the box has suffered a hardware fault which will need repairing.
If this is the case, it may be cheaper to buy another set top box than to have yours repaired. Asda and a number of other outlets have recently been selling refurbished 160Gb Top Up TV hard disk recorders for £50.