[di spencer]

Thomson DTI 6300-16
I have the above machine which I purchased from Argos 13 months ago (unbeliveably I still have the receipt). Its never been great, skipping, freezing, crashing, missed recordings (not unusual from what i've read),etc but i've put up with it. When I got home from work last night I noticed an orange light flashing light on the front of the machine. Without turning the TV on I unplugged the box. About 30 minutes later I plugged it back and waited for it to load up. All that happened was the same flashing orange light, the fan/harddrive(??) did not fire up. I left it for a few minutes and tried again, same thing. I also tried randomly pressing buttons on the remote and on the box, unsurprisingly this did nothing.
So, is it broken? I'm not at all technically minded so if it is fixable is it easy? I noticed on another thread someone said that it is broken(?), so if this is the case where do I stand with regards to returning it? Obviously it is out of the normal 12 month guarantee, but I have read on this and other forums a phrase 'fit for purpose' what does this mean? Will I be able to get a refund/exchange and if so who should I talk to and what should I say?
Thanks for reading this rather long first post but I would be very grateful for any help.

Di