I had a 8700+ just until a few weeks ago. BenQ has a nice 3 year warranty on their pjs (this is in Europe but I suppose it's the same worldwide warranty?). Since I was going to sell it I wanted a complete service on the pj so I called BenQ support and got an RMA number. Mine also had developed more and more noise on the colour wheel /and/ or some of the fans. This pj was about 1½ years old with 1300 hours on the lamp. The noise was my reason for wanting it serviced. Anyway, I got a refurbished unit back which had only 150 hours of usage (checked in service menu). Pretty good deal if you ask me. Also this one was much more quiet. AND I think that it had a fixed firmware since pannings were now much smoother that with the previous pj. Firmware on exchange pj was also 1.07, just like mine, but something sure was different in the picture regarding pannings. Almost made me hesitate selling it for a moment there... 
I really like the picture you can get from the 8700 with a little bit of tweaking and the right dvd player.
About the bulb.... I have tried to start the pj without the bulb in it (stupid user error ) and it made that popping sound you describe. Maybe try to reinsert the bulb?
I really like the picture you can get from the 8700 with a little bit of tweaking and the right dvd player.About the bulb.... I have tried to start the pj without the bulb in it (stupid user error
) and it made that popping sound you describe. Maybe try to reinsert the bulb?
