My hd70 has been working fine until now ---- it shows a black and white speckled / "frozen snowstorm" image at startup and will not allow me to resync or access the menus. This has happened before, but when I would unplug it, wait, then plug it back in, it would usually work fine. Today, though, that is not working!

Please help! I don't think the bulb is broken, since it is displaying an image --- it is just frozen :-( Any help with this will be greatly appreciated.....

The HD70 has a 2 year warranty. Is yours still good? Sounds like it needs a shop visit.

I'm covered by Best Buy's service policy ---- should I really take it there? Will my unit be held hostage for 2-3 weeks??? :-( Is there any way that I can fix this on my own???

Box it and ship it back to Optoma. They will fix it and ship back to you with in a week.
My experiences have been AAAA+

I'm covered by Best Buy's service policy ---- should I really take it there? Will my unit be held hostage for 2-3 weeks??? :-( Is there any way that I can fix this on my own???

If it has been more than two years then yes you will be a hostage to Best Buy. It will be handled by the Geek Squad desk if yours has one. Talk to the manager there and see if they will give you the choice of sending it to Optoma for repair or replacing it with a new HD65.