My 501 Died!

[RobertB]

My 501 died last night as I was sitting there watching a program.  I heard a soft snap, and the picture disappeared.  I pulled the smart card and nothing happened; no system information screen!  I unpluged it for a while, same result.  The green LED is blinking very faintly and very fast (2-3 times a second), but no hard drive noise or heat is coming from the box and the fan in back is not running.  This box is a replacement for my brand new 501 I bought from a local dealer 13 months ago; it is only 3 months old!  When I called Dish, they said that it was out of warranty and it would cost me $80 to replace it outright, or $50 if I signed up for their $2.00 a month "extended warranty" on the whole system (dish, receiver, & remote).  Anyone have any idea what happened?  Is the "extended warranty" a good idea? :shrug:

[TopCat99]

$50?! I thot the extended warranty covered everything short of p*ssing in it for free! :rant:

Check the fuse? Faint blink for a few seconds may have just been the caps bleeding off. If it keeps blinking, though, that's obviously not the case. :(

[boba]

You ask if the extended warranty is worth it, you answered your own question. If you had the warranty the most you would be paying is a shipping charge, without it it is $80.00. Pay the $50 and get the extended warranty, you've already experienced the failure rate on PVR 501.