Yamaha DTXpress/DTXplorer/DTXtreme

Hi all, first of all just want to say thanks to everyone who 
contributes to the group. I am sure for each one of you there are 
ten of me who barely read and then come begging for help. So thanks 
and sorry in advance. 

I bought the DTXTREME IIs in January of this year. I haven't played 
drums since I was in third grade back in the early 80's. Wanted a 
set ever since, but have always lived in condos or apartments so I 
decided my new years resolution for 06 was to say "WTF" once in a 
while, and on the note I said "WTF" and bought the set. 

Has worked great so far, but recently my RHH130 hi-hat has started 
to intermittently not work. When I say intermittently, I mean that I 
can be playing along, same tempo, same velocity etc and it'll work 
for a few seconds, then randomly I get nothing at all.... After a 
few seconds it will come back. Sometimes I can hit is as hard as 
possible with no sound. Other times it will pick up the most 
delicate taps on the hi-hat. 

The same thing happens no matter what kit I use. I have adjusted 
with the trigger settings, velocity, volume, changed the cables to 
known good cables etc. I have factory reset the module. I even 
opened up the unit and cleaned the sensors on the bottom half of the 
RHH130 unit. All of this and still the same result. This started 
happening about 2 weeks ago. 

All other pads/cymbals and module functions are working properly.

I contacted the retailer I purchased from (Guitar Center, Concord 
CA) and was told it was faster and easier to go directly through 
Yamaha to get repaired. I know they (Guitar Center) doesn't want to 
deal with it because there is nothing in it for them, except a happy 
customer. But hey, who wants those these days....

My questions are:

1.) Has anyone else had this problem? If so, were you able to find a 
resolution? (I did not find anything in this group by using the 
search function). 

2.) Has anyone dealt with Yamaha directly to get repairs? If so, was 
the turn time fast? Labor rates expensive? Overall experience? 

I am concerned about having to ship this thing out and be without 
for weeks and weeks. 

Any comments & suggestions are welcome. Thanks again to all who run 
this group.

Travis