Annette,
That confirms what we suspected. I'll just part out the feet and accessories on eBay.
I already have a machine with a larger throat - my Janome 7700 that I bought when the 180e first died, and after this experience I don't have a lot of confidence in Bernina longevity. A shame, because I did like the way this one sewed, but they are very pricey for what I've seen as questionable reliability (I worked in the computer hardware industry).
It was an outside hope on your suggestion of leaving it on for a day to see what happened. Thanks for sharing that :-)
Michelle