Because of the extreme lack of concern to get this corrected let this be a warning to all that consider buying a new onkyo product! This may be the beginning of the end of a (once great) audio brand.
I talked to the service center today and they said that they had to send back a bad part (probably another drive) to onkyo for replacement. Onkyo sent them a bad part.
VERY late to this thread -- did the OP replace the transport ?? I have a 7030 and am disappointed in the skipping -- placed it on wall-mounted shelf - still skipping .. cleaned the lens etc .. Don't want to purch new C-30 (Icon series) -- Pretty sure I can replace transport, just wondering if any gotchas from anyone who has actually performed this surgery (and I may be over-thinking this ..maybe as easy as swapping a hard drive in a laptop) ..
as always - thx to the community .