Trouble with Panasonic DMR-ES35V

This is my first post here--hope it is in the appropriate place (?).

My issue -

I have a Panasonic DMR-ES35V. I love this unit. Usually trouble free. I used it yesterday all day to transfer some video to a RAM disk for editing and eventally to later put on a permant disk and I had no problems.

Today I turn on the Panasonic and within 20 seconds it shuts off by itself. I turn it back on, it turns itself off again within 20 seconds--why? It has done this a few times lately but eventually quits doing this within a short time period (shutting off) and works fine/like normal. I didn't think much about it because it eventually quit doing this and was fine but now it keeps doing it and doesn't want to quit.

Wonder--is this something major--any one have an idea? Can I safely take it apart and clean it--would this help? Has never been cleaned since I bought it new. Have had it for several years.

I called Panasonic this a.m. and they said it is a Power problem--"I knew this--duh"--and I would have to contact a Panasonic Exhange Center to have it serviced, and they gave me a phone number to call (long distance).

I searched online for Panasonic Exhange Centers but I don't see any locations listed. With my luck they will be miles and miles away. I don't want to run all over God's green earth to get to a repair center.

Was really hoping this was something simple that I could try and fix myself--maybe not.

Many thanks for any help with this.

First I want to say that I have hit my private message limit of 2 for the day, so I want to thank Mike and tell him I will keep his contact info. in case I need my Unit repaired.

Thank you, DigaDo, for all the wonder information and links, which I will certainly keep.

Now--to the part where I wish I could avoid but must admit, I feel absolutely foolish (and brain dead) to anyone who may read this, but I fixed the recorder myself just a few minutes ago----not really fixed, perhaps, but figured out what I did wrong that messed with my unit to cause it to turn off by itself.

First I messed around with the Panisonic and found out that it would stay on with the DVD tray open. Why was this? When I shut the tray, the unit would shut off. I looked things over and it dawned on me that I was the culprit----oh boy---well, here goes--and it's all my fault !

Not long ago, I took an extra DVD Player I had and set it on top of the Panasonic so I could play DVDs on my TV that the Panasonic won't. I don't have a lot of room for this stuff and didn't think it would be a problem to set it up there. Well--even though it doesn't seem to weight a lot, and where it sits on top of the Panasonic seems to be on the perimeter, it's just enough weight to cause problems with the Panasonic (probably makes it stick inside somewhere) thus causing the unit to shut off.

I am now, as I type, using this Panasonic unit, without any further trouble.

I apologize to you all, and I hope you will chalk this up to me being a novice.

Regards.........................