This evening my HDD has lost use of digital channels. It gives me a 3 second picture and burst of sound, and then a silent blank screen. The Electronic Programme Guide has changed its appearance, becoming a more vibrant blue - only a few channels have information and it only shows for a few seconds before disappearing.

It is running firmware version 1.24 which I have tried to update to version 1.7 from the Sony website instructions here. I've copied the update to a CD and finalised the disk. When I put it in the HDD tray, and press record stop at the same time as play, it closes the tray, for a few seconds and then spits it out and closes again really quickly but doesn't seem to update the firmware. Certainly I don't get the series of messages about Download-2, 3, 4, etc. When I check the version again, it is still showing version 1.24. I've tried burning a couple of CDs but they both fail to work in exactly the same way.

I've done an Easy Setup, and also a factory reset (stop + power off on the machine). I've also done a factory reset followed by two minutes with the power turned off. All of these have failed.

Can anyone advise me what I should do next?