yes, i tried those things - als i've told - i've got v2b13, a new battery and today i tried to bend the contacts a little bit.. i tried the remote while the player was on the table connected to AC power... and i was glad it worked for every keypress...
but then i put it back into the car... and it didn't work any more... so it seems it has something to do when in the sled... so maybe it is any software-related problem?
any further idea? should i maybe uninstall the hijack kernel? any other things to do?