I went away for the holiday, so before i left I shut down my rack of components. When I came back I swithced the main power switch back on and sat down to watch TV, but I got a message from the HD DVR, an HD10-250, saying that the internal tempature was too hot, so it shut it down and that I should make sure that it was getting sufficient air flow and to unplug and replug it.
Well first of all it's impossible that it would be too hot, it had been off for 10 days, second, it get's plenty of air, and third unplugging it didn't fix the problem.
I called Direct TV, the tech support guy said he'd never heard of one going bad like this and so they sent me a new one, an HR20-700S, which I succesfully hooked up (no minor feat for me) and got running with the help of another tech support guy at Direct TV.
Normally this is where the story is supposed to end, but quite honestly I hate the new HD DVR. I'm sure it's technically a better machine, but it's got two problems. One (and yes I know this is trivial), the interface has changed. You have to push the guide button twice to get to the guide (the first time you push the guide buttone you get a choice of different types of programming, sports, news, etc). Why would anyone program a machine this way? It's just not logical to me, but maybe that's just me.
The second problem is more annoying. When I switch from channel to channel it takes anywhere from 5 to 7 seconds for anything to show up. Now 7 seconds may not sound like a lot, but channel surfing is my God given right, and with that sort of delay it kind of takes the fun out of it.
I know I've rambled, but here are my questions:
1) has anyone ever heard of a DVR going dead in that manner?
2) if so, do you know how to fix it?
3) can i still buy an HD10-250? Where?
4) is there anyway to decrease that delay? (I've downloaded the newest software from direct TV, which didn't do much.)
5) is there a way to make the guide work with one less button push?

Thanks.

yes, hd dvrs are known to overheat and stop working.
maybe the fan stopped working and it overheated, the hd tivo does run even while not watching it or in standby mode.
you could try a hard drive replacement sometimes that is the problem, even though it mentions heat as the culprit, check weakness or dvrupgrade, 9thtee for hd solutions or download the software and load a new hd with it install it and do it your self.
you can still buy a new hr10-250 off ebay.

thanks.
much appreciated.

4) turn native "off" it'll go faster.

5) just click the button twice, it's no big deal. you'll get used to it.

The new dvr is much better than the old tivo, once you get used to it, you'll never be able to go back. You should be glad the tivo broke, you got a dvr people are spending $200 on for free!