I bought a Harmony 1100 at a garage sale. When I tried to set it up I was told that it had been disabled on Logitech's servers. I called Logitech and they said it was a defective unit. I asked to have it re-enable so I could verify and they said no. Is there any way to bypass the Logitech servers, some form of hack, to get the remote to be able to be configured so I can be sure it is really a bad unit?

As far as I know, no, and it probably means that Logitech sent out a warranty replacement unit for one that the customer claimed was defective, without requesting that the original first be returned.

To my knowledge it's their general policy to let the owner keep the old one and they disable it from accessing their servers. My old H900 was just disabled about a week ago. The only reason I know it can never be programmed is because when I was looking around ebay for a replacement I came across a seller names blueturningleaf who has a few of those help postings up, one of which being how to buy a used remote without getting ripped off, and that topic was in it. This seller sells repair and upgrade services for Harmony remotes. When I asked him if his services could be of use to me, he provided much useful free advice and I llearned from him tha I had a common bad firmware issue, and that was covered in his help thingies too. When I mentioned RC he said that 's a great site. I feel bad for neglecting it and my old friend Daniel for so long. I ended up getting a warranty replacement and blueturningleaf is interested in my old one for parts. He might like yours too. If he takes it off your hands it may be the only way you could salvage anything from your experience. In any case you could look him up in ebay and message back and forth with him over your issue. Tell him user iambradley sent you. Hi Daniel!

Not to go off-topic... but Hi Brad! Long time no hear!