DSR 704 Deleting Prior Account???

[Neophyte1]

Help! I purchased a DSR 704 from someone on Ebay and the unit seems fine but when I went to activate it the fine folks at Directv said they couldn't (or more likely wouldn't). Anyway as it turns out the prior owner never deactivated the unit and Directv says they can't help me. My question is how to make the unit work with my account info? Is the old user account info stored on the hard drive or is there something else I can do?? I have my own access card from an old receiver I had. I would like to install a larger hard drive if that would resolve my issue. Any help for this newbie would be appreciated!!! Thanks!

[JimSpence]

You really need to contact a higher level supervisor at DirecTV to help you with this. One problem is that the receiver may have some deliquent PPV charges against it. You should contact the prior owner and have them call DirecTV to have it officially deactivated. This unit could also be "hot", meaning the seller didn't really own it. Adding a larger hard drive and using your card won't solve the problem, as the TiVo's serial number is still listed on another's account.