Good News!! I have found a way to fix this loud high pitch "grinding" noise, sudden battery "draining" accompanied by the eject "D" symbol being displayed only after a few seconds of tape play. And absolutely No thanks to Samsung's customer service. Although seemingly polite, I had to talk to 6 customer service representatives before they properly transferred me to Executive Customer Relation(ECR). They said they were experiencing technical difficulties. Once I got through, the ECR rep. insisted that the repairs will cost $160 mainly due to the cost of the parts and also admitted that he didn't know much about the technical aspect of the camcorder. And I was repeatedly told that this was not a known or "universal" issue so the warranty cannot be extended.
It is indeed a mechanical problem. The camcorder had only been used three times and kept in storage in its original box with no temperature extremes since I had puchased it at the end of 2006.
Here is the SOLUTION:
1) Gently unscrew and remove the front casing portion of the camcorder.
2) Directly underneath the lens there is crosslike metal support that extends from the tape compartment chassis. The green circuit board should rest on top of it as shown below instead of being under it .
Now the camcorder functions properly consistently. The cost = $ 0.
