Originally Posted by
simplepinoi177 
I'd like to share my repair story and some of the things I've learnt...
If you press display and power at the same time, it shows the firmware information. (I believe it was power and display, but was just observing and i could've misinterpret it). The 2 persons behind the counter said that a lot of times the hdmi board wrecks it so badly that it just displays question marks instead of the firmware numbers.
After calling Onkyo to try and get information on how to get it serviced, the person on the phone had me try a
"last resort" on my unit. He had me hold down the VCR/DVR button and press the power button. What this ended up doing is resetting EVERYTHING back to factory. So none of the speaker calibrations nor levels were saved and everything was erased/reverted. Not that I care, because I was having the unit repaired/replaced anyways.
The guy behind the counter pointed out to me that if you look at the unit from above, you can see the HDMI board through the vents. The big black chip that you see on the HDMI board is what is actually the problem. He said that it's that chip that is defective and makes the board overheat.
He said that Onkyo is pretty much sending the HDMI boards out as fast as they can manufacture them. But because so many units are having problems and they are
replacing too many, that the boards are back-ordered and it would take me
1 month to get my receiver back. He said that a lot of times it takes so long that they could make a whole new unit/replacement before receiving the specific hdmi board, so whichever comes first! So, either they replace my hdmi board or send me a whole brand new unit! Either way I am happy because he said that after a unit's been replaced or repaired,
they've never had a unit return again. This is something that worried me from what I've been seeing or hearing on the forums, that the units simply get a quick fix or something and not replaced, and are broken or underperforming within a few months. By getting the hdmi board replaced, or even the whole unit replaced, I can feel confident about this repair. He also said that there were
STACKS and STACKS of R667's in the back/warehouse.
Another neat thing (maybe only my repair center) is that I only had to worry about getting the unit there. Apparently, Onkyo would cover a 1 time shipping out cost. So, once they get an hdmi board and replace it, they'd ship it to my address. Or, if Onkyo decided to just replace with a brand new receiver, they would ship directly to my address! This worked well because I'm in the Bay Area, CA and had to drive 33 miles to the only one that seemed to be around for 50 miles; the Mountain View, CA repair center. So, basically, like the person behind the counter said, I only had to worry about getting the unit there to them;1 time trip.
Another thing I've learned from this is about Onkyo's 2 year manufacturer's warranty. I bought mine at Vanns.com and also purchased a 3 year extended warranty. I called Vanns to get the extended warranty company's number, and then called NSI or NIS or something. They said that since I had the unit for only a little over a year, that I would need to go through Onkyo to get the unit serviced. I then asked if the extended warranty I bought applies
AFTER the 2 year manufacturer's warranty (5 years coverage) or did they do the coverage
simultaneously (3 year coverage)? Of course, I got jiffed/tricked and for whatever reason, they cover simultaneously. So, basically, my $40 pretty much only bought 1 year coverage
after Onkyo's 2 year man. warranty. I'm sharing this so other people can keep it in mind when buying this unit and/or buying other units like this.
In any case, because it's been within 2 years manufacturer's warranty, all I needed to bring in was the receiver and an invoice/receipt. Everything else was taken care of without needing to pay anything.
So that's pretty much my experience and new information (at least new to me) that I have. Now I gotta go a month without my surround sound, but at least I won't have to wait 15 minutes for 1080i (or regular tv for that matter) and up to 30 mins for 1080p. And, I don't have the worry about this problem re-occuring as well. I will post up when I have new information and to write how this ends up. Hope this helped in some way or gave a good read!
heh.
