I began having a power up problem with my 900u recently until it quit powering all together. I read several posts regarding the 700 and the 900 doing this and how people were getting it fixed at Heartland (Panny's authorized repair place) for anywhere from $275-400. They called me today and said they wanted $870+ to fix the part (which is a p-module and ballast), plus they wanted to replace the bulb (which only had 600 hours on it), and an additional cost for reboxing (it was in the original box which was put away right after I originally opened it and was still plenty rigid). I can get a new 900 for $800 or I can upgrade to the Z2000 for $1500 after rebates. My question is this; If I tell Heartland to keep it do they repair and resell it or do they dispose of it in an "environmentally friendly way" (apparently due to mercury in the bulb) like they said? They want me to pay $220 to send it back to me unfixed, much more to fix it with no guarantees, or me pay nothing and they keep it to "dispose of". I don't have an unlimited budget, but right now I've got mama's tentative ok to replace it.

I will bet that the facility or should I say someone at the facility will repair it and keep it themselves just like we do at our company.

Wow, $870??? A ballast and P module from panasonic costs around $250, thats a lot to charge for that. I'm working on one now for someone that has the same problem....made a pop then would power up but not light the lamp, then made another pop and woudln't do anything. Replaced p module, got about 5 seconds of light then the ballast blew. Not sure if theres something else in these thats causing this, or if it was a ballast all along. Wonder if it was some sort of defect with the boards maybe? There seems to be a lot of power issues w/ these Panny's on here.

Wow, $870??? A ballast and P module from panasonic costs around $250, thats a lot to charge for that. I'm working on one now for someone that has the same problem....made a pop then would power up but not light the lamp, then made another pop and woudln't do anything. Replaced p module, got about 5 seconds of light then the ballast blew. Not sure if theres something else in these thats causing this, or if it was a ballast all along. Wonder if it was some sort of defect with the boards maybe? There seems to be a lot of power issues w/ these Panny's on here.

Those pops sound like bad caps. There's still some of that cropping up from time to time though much less than a few years ago when the flood of bad caps hit the market.