Seeing as this is a new unit, it might be from the same batch as mine. That and other experiences on here would point to a badly crimped cable.

The warranty stickers on the new players I've seen are on the drive tray. So you can open the unit to look at the cable connection to the drive, but you can't see the connection to the motherboard - that would involve breaking the seals.

I suspect David is going to be really busy with emails over the next few weeks - he's already posted mentioning his queue is up to 100 or so. :)

My 3 new Mk2a's are in town at FedEx and I should have them Monday. Guess I'll know then if they too have bad cables.

Bruno