Repair and Service
CCTV Repair and Maintenance in Lahore
Cameras offline, black screen, DVR not recording, hard disk failed, mobile view dead. Repair and maintenance support for Pollo Security CCTV cameras, DVRs, NVRs and related Pollo equipment. Send us the Pollo model number and a photograph of the fault on WhatsApp.
Please note: StrixLink currently provides repair and maintenance services exclusively for Pollo Security products. Send us the Pollo model number and a photograph of the fault on WhatsApp and we will tell you what is wrong.
Most People Discover the Fault on the Worst Possible Day
The typical repair call starts the same way: something happened, the owner sat down to check the footage, and the days they needed were not there. Sometimes the disk failed weeks ago and nobody saw the beep. Sometimes two cameras went dark after a storm. Sometimes the recorder is fine and only the app stopped connecting after an internet change.
StrixLink repairs and maintains Pollo Security CCTV systems across Lahore. Send the Pollo model number and a photograph of the recorder screen on WhatsApp and describe when it last worked — a surprising number of faults are identified from that alone, and some are fixed without a visit.
Where a site visit is needed, we diagnose first and quote before replacing anything. Charges are Contact for Price and confirmed before work begins.
Faults We Handle
Cameras offline or showing no video
One channel dark, several dark, or the whole system down. Usually a cable joint, a wet junction box, a failed power supply or a dead switch port rather than the camera itself.
DVR or NVR not recording
Recorder powered and displaying live video, but playback is empty or stops days short. Disk health, format state, schedule and overwrite settings all get checked.
Hard disk failure and replacement
Continuous beeping, disk not detected, or recording that silently stopped. We replace with a surveillance-rated disk sized to the retention you want.
Mobile view and remote access down
Local screen fine, app not connecting. Almost always a router replacement, a lost port forward or an ISP-side change rather than a camera fault.
Poor night image
White glare, washed-out faces or a black frame after dark. Caused by IR bouncing off a wall, glass or a dusty dome bubble far more often than by a bad camera.
Water ingress and monsoon damage
Corroded connectors, water tracking down cable into a box, and cameras that fail a week after heavy rain. We reseal and re-gland rather than just swapping parts.
Lost passwords and locked recorders
On a Pollo recorder we explain the reset route, what it costs you in stored footage, and what verification Pollo requires.
Footage export for complaints
Retrieving and exporting a clip in a usable format for a police complaint or an insurance claim, without disturbing the rest of the timeline.
Common Symptoms and What We Check First
Use this to describe the fault accurately on WhatsApp. The better the description, the more likely we solve it before the visit.
| What you are seeing | What we check first |
|---|---|
| One camera dark, the rest are fine | Cable joint at the junction box, water in the box, the recorder or switch port, then the camera itself |
| All cameras dark after a power event | Power supply output, PoE switch, surge damage, and whether the recorder boots and detects its disk |
| Live view works, playback is empty | Disk health and detection, recording schedule, and whether the disk has failed silently |
| Footage only goes back a few days | Disk capacity against channel count, resolution and bitrate settings, and continuous versus motion recording |
| Mobile app not connecting, local screen fine | Router or ONU change, P2P status, lost port forwarding, ISP-side addressing |
| Night image is white glare | IR reflecting off a wall, glass or a dusty dome bubble, plus spider webs across the housing |
| Daytime image dim and hazy | Lens and bubble coated in road dust or smog residue, or a failing IR-cut filter |
| Recorder beeping continuously | Disk error, disk missing, or a video loss alarm on one or more channels |
| Image flickers or rolls | Voltage fluctuation, an undersized or failing power supply, or a bad cable termination |
How a Repair Job Works
1. Send the symptom
Message us on WhatsApp with a photo of the recorder screen, the brand, roughly how many cameras, and when it last worked properly.
2. Remote check
If the system is reachable and you can share access, we look at disk status, logs and network settings first. Some faults end here at no visit cost.
3. Site visit and diagnosis
We test at the camera end and the recorder end, because a dead channel is a cable fault as often as a device fault. You are told what failed and why.
4. Quotation before parts
Any replacement — disk, power supply, camera, connector, switch — is quoted before it is fitted. Contact for Price, confirmed with you first.
5. Repair and verification
We fix, then verify: all channels live, recording confirmed on playback, night image checked after dark where relevant, and remote view tested on your phone.
6. Report on what caused it
If the root cause is design rather than hardware — no surge protection, an undersized disk, a camera badly placed for IR — we tell you plainly instead of letting it recur.
Footage Recovery and Handing Over a Clip
After an incident the request is nearly always the same: get the clip out, quickly, in a form somebody official will accept. Three things determine whether that is possible — how many days the recorder actually holds, whether the disk was healthy during that window, and whether the system kept running through any power outage.
We can export from a working recorder, extract from a disk that a recorder has stopped reading in some cases, and advise honestly when data is gone. Recovery from a physically failed disk is a specialist laboratory job and we will say so rather than take your money to try.
When exporting, we take the segment you need and leave the rest of the timeline intact, and we hand it over in a common format with the correct date and time stamps. If your recorder clock has drifted, that is worth correcting before you need the footage, not after.
Annual Maintenance — What a Service Visit Covers
An annual maintenance contract exists for one reason: to make sure the footage is there on the day you go looking. Contract scope and frequency are agreed per site and are Contact for Price.
- Lens and housing cleaning — Lahore dust and smog season coats dome bubbles and lenses, especially on roads with heavy traffic. An annual clean is the cheapest image improvement available.
- Disk health and retention check — We read the disk status, confirm the oldest available recording, and tell you whether you are actually getting the days you think you are.
- Pre-monsoon seal check — Junction boxes, cable entries, glands and roof runs inspected and resealed before the rains, since that is where water gets in.
- Power and backup verification — Power supplies tested under load, UPS batteries checked, and confirmation that the recorder, switch and router are still on the backed-up circuit after any electrical work.
- Night-time image review — Checked after dark on the actual scene, because IR performance degrades quietly as housings age and lighting around the property changes.
- Firmware, users and time — Firmware reviewed where it is safe to update, unused accounts removed, passwords rotated where staff have left, and the system clock corrected.
Taking Over a System Someone Else Installed
We regularly inherit systems where the original installer is no longer reachable, the passwords are gone and the cabling is a bundle behind a cupboard door. That is a normal starting point, not a reason to rip everything out.
Our takeover visit documents what is actually there — camera types and positions, recorder model, channel usage, disk size, cable routes, power arrangement — and gives you a short list separating what must be fixed now from what can wait. Where existing hardware is serviceable we keep it. Where a device is genuinely at end of life, we say so and quote a replacement rather than repairing it twice.
If the system is analog and you are considering a change of technology, it is worth understanding what is reusable before deciding. Existing coaxial cable often has more life in it than people assume.
System Down? Send Us the Screen
A photo of the recorder display and a one-line description of when it last worked is usually enough for us to tell you what is wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Do you repair Pollo systems you did not install?
Yes, provided the equipment is Pollo Security. We support Pollo cameras, DVRs and NVRs whether or not StrixLink fitted them. We do not service other manufacturers’ equipment. We diagnose first, tell you what failed, and quote before replacing anything.
How quickly can a technician reach my site in Lahore?
We prioritise total-system-down faults and aim to attend urgent Lahore calls on a same-day or next-day basis depending on the area and the time of your call. Current availability is confirmed when you Message us on WhatsApp — we would rather give you an honest slot than a promise we miss.
My DVR shows live video but there is no recording. What is wrong?
In most cases the hard disk has failed or has been silently dropped by the recorder, and in others the recording schedule was never applied to all channels. Both are checked in minutes on site. If the disk has failed we replace it with a surveillance-rated drive sized to the retention you need.
Can you recover footage that has already been overwritten?
Once a recorder has overwritten a segment, that data is generally not recoverable by normal means. If the disk is intact but the recorder cannot read it, there is often something to retrieve. If the disk has physically failed, that becomes a specialist laboratory job and we will tell you rather than experiment with your evidence.
The mobile app stopped working but the cameras are fine. Why?
This is almost always a network change rather than a camera fault — a new router, a factory reset that wiped port forwarding, a changed password, or a shift in how your ISP delivers the connection. It is usually resolved without touching a single camera.
Do you offer an annual maintenance contract?
Yes, for homes, offices, shops, schools and industrial sites. Scope, visit frequency and response commitments are agreed per site and priced on request. Multi-site businesses can have all branches on one contract with a single point of contact.
Is it worth repairing an old analog system or should I replace it?
It depends on the cable, not just the cameras. Existing coaxial runs can often be reused with newer analog cameras, which keeps the job affordable. If you need higher resolution, remote features or analytics, migrating to Pollo IP equipment may be the better spend — we will show you both options with a scope and let you decide.
A camera stopped working right after heavy rain. Is it dead?
Often not. The failure is usually in the junction box or the cable entry where water has tracked in, rather than in the camera body. We open, dry, re-terminate and reseal, and only replace the camera if it has genuinely taken water internally.