need help regarding my HD5 (reparation)

[aragornmustdie]

Hi guys,

basically I've owned this brilliant piece of DAP for years, and it's been a bit problematic recently:

- cosmetically the top panel is now very dirty and corroded; but no problems whatsoever aside from the jack being a bit troublesome and the hatch (hiding the mini USB jack and the DC input) can't be closed shut.

- then some bruises from freefall

- then you know that the battery hatch involves a sharp needle to open it, right? well I don't need it to do it anymore, the mechanism is broken

- internally, I think it has been contaminated by virus at least once, moment I haven't formatted yet because I wanted to preserve the files inside. Then, sometimes it would stuck/ stopped playing by itself and some rattles from inside can be heard- which is clearly a HDD problem. oh, and sometimes it keeps playing a track but with no sound.

so i went to the sony service center.

then they said that basically my player's HDD is unstable.

If I want to get everything fixed, it would cost me something like US$180. Which is almost the cost of the player itself when I bought it.

Then, if I decided to get it cosmetically repaired only, it would cost around US$80. And if I decided to get only the HDD repaired, it would be *gasp* US$100.

I am leaning towards the HDD repair as of now, but then again-

I dont know how broken is my HDD, how is "unstable" gonna affect me later on. Is it a safe investment to install a brand new HDD? My other concern is because some people manage to even replace their 20GB HDD with larger ones- is that difficult to achieve? Some even said that HD5 is among the easiest to mod- can you guys please explain this to me?

Is my HD5 worth my persistence? For me it is the best player ever, bar none. I mean, with US$180 I might as well get a brand new player... *sigh*

thx in advance for the help, guys.

[Guest Stuge]

Hi there ,

IMO instead of getting it repaired ,why not buy a new player ?

like new Network Walkman series NW-829 .Its 16gb and its flash based .

[aragornmustdie]

I love it too much lol.

and i need bigger than 16GB anyway. yes, flash is very durable i know.

but i like everything about my HD5, and i prefer the short compact kinda thing instead of the tall slim with big screens (the trend nowadays-video, i dont need video)

yeah still the last thing on my list is getting the A820 though.

[Weaves_]

Here might be your new answer. A 80gb Zune (now gapless) for only $239. I might join the dark side with this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Zune-Digital-Media-P...5178&sr=1-1

[kino170878]

^ That Zune looks really interesting, but with no EQ I just can't see myself buying it as I place sound quality at the top of my list.

[Guest Stuge]

I love it too much lol.

and i need bigger than 16GB anyway. yes, flash is very durable i know.

but i like everything about my HD5, and i prefer the short compact kinda thing instead of the tall slim with big screens (the trend nowadays-video, i dont need video)

yeah still the last thing on my list is getting the A820 though.

Then what can I say .Either you can get it repaired (which I don't recommend ) or get a new player player other than Sony.