Partial Recordings on HDVR2

Hi! I have a three year old HDVR2 that has always worked really, really well but lately has been giving us some problems. One thing is that when you press the menu button you are hanging around for as long as 30 seconds waiting for the menu to come up (this goes for the list button, as well). Another thing is that lately during the day (ONLY during the day) it has been getting only partial recordings - the duration is listed as 1 hour, or whatever, but when you actually go to play it you see it only got 3 minutes, 30 minutes, etc. I called D* and they said it was a possible "sun spot" issue - but it's been happening pretty consistently for two months now and when you're in playback you don't see the warbled screen you associate with a bad signal, the recording just ends.

I have not had the unit plugged into a phone line for two years, so it's possible that it's just a matter of needing its updates or whatever, but I wondered if a system reset (where it erases everything you've ever recorded, all season passes, etc.) would do any good. The reason I ask is because the last time I plugged it in to a phone line it didn't do anything. It kept trying to make calls but they wouldn't go through. I even have some unbilled PPV purchases that are on there but I can't get the stupid thing to dial up to send them so that I can be billed for them.

Anyway, anyone with any experience using the reset function, I'd like to hear from you. I don't want to go through the process of deleting everything and replacing it if it's not even going to solve the problems. THANKS!!