I'm new to this and I would appreciate some help please regarding a Duo and starting

Hello everyone.

Here is my story.

This time late last year *** was getting expensive. I went to ****** but they mucked me around with what they offered and what they really wanted to give me when the box was installed so I decided to buy a Freesat box. I finished up getting a ***box F5S but I didn't get much chance to use it because *** offered me a great deal. A year on and the price is going up again so I decided to try the F5S again. I didn't realise that it only had 1 input (the other connection is a loop) and I wanted to have the option of 2 inputs so I went searching again and found a VU+ Solo 2 SE (a clone I believe) and although I like it I thought I'd get a project to tinker with as I like to believe I have some technical knowhow lol.

I bought a VU+ Duo that just displays 'Starting' and I believe a red dot (I'm coloured blind lol). I had a read up before I bought it and I thought I would be able to reload the VU+ software via USB.

Now here's where I am stuck.

Yes I know I'm not a clever as I previously thought (lol) but I am a willing learner hopefully with some help.

I have tried the procedure with 2 USB sticks that I have formatted to FAT32 via right click format and format through computer management. I have tried all three USB ports. No Luck. I have tried to repair via the RS232 cable supplied with the Solo2 and a USB adapter without success. I have read you need to do this on Windows XP laptop with it's own RS232 connection and another adapter that configures the pins in a different way. Is this right or wrong?

The questions I have are How do I tell if this is a real VU+ Duo or a clone? If it's not a clone then what could I be doing wrong? I am not sure what this means but I believe I have a V3 chip inside!

Any help please on this or these issues would be greatly appreciated and many thanks in advance.

Pete

Cheers Steve. On the back there is a sticker above the inputs that says V 2.0 and above that another with VU+ Duo and BN and SN codes. The chip inside has the same code as a picture I have seen of a Ferrari V3 chip.

I knew the box wasn't working so I doubt I can return it but is there anything I may be able to do to repair it please?

Thank you again Steve. I have just seen the pics and you are absolutely correct. Sorry for posting this thread but at least it answers one question for me.