Yeah, both ends are tight and right where they should be. Update to my problem is this: I was able to get the unit to boot and play music by just by moving the hard disk around while it was still conntected. Figured everything was fine so I screwed it all back together and got the same "no hard disk found" message. Removed the screws that support the disk mounting plate and it booted up and plays again. The problem is still intermittant, but I'm fairly sure it's the cable at this point. The cable actually has a bit of tension when everything is screwed together. My guess is, it's pulling and creating a short of some kind in the cable itself. The guys at Rio are sending me a new one to install.