JVC has had a special free repair offer on this manufacturing fault running for about the last 30 months or so but unfortunately this expired at the end of Dec 2007, so all you can really do now is pay out the exorbitant charge (approx over half the original cost price) to have it repaired or contact JVC by letter and "plead your case", which may work as its still the same manufacturing defect that caused the problem in the first place, and this caused by faulty CCD modules (supplied by Sony) being fitted into a multitude of JVC models. Regards to repairing it yourself, even if you were technically able the module costs in the region of £70 and is not obtainable from JVC, as they will only supply them to registered agent account holders. (in the UK anyway!)