Keep in mind that a kernel is not the whole upgrade. It's only the flash RAM half of the upgrade.

What you're sitting on now is a half-and-half: The hard disk contains the version 1.02 player software, and the flash RAM contains a version 2.0 kernel. That's *bad*.

You need to get the "upgrade" file to work right, so that there is not a mismatch between the kernel and the player software.

At this point we have ruled out hardware trouble. In other words, the player has the ability to fully flash the kernel. So now we have to find out why the .upgrade file isn't working. Perhaps it's this problem?

Also make sure to install the latest Emplode first, so that you're sure you've got the latest version of the upgrader software as described here.