War wounds, indeed! Taking the thing out of the dash is almost an olympic event now. Anyone got a clue why it would become more and more difficult over time to remove and insert it?

Yes. If you look at the sides of the player, you will notice that the scratches from the side-bumps are turning into rough gouges instead of faint scratches. I reported this problem last year. My work-around was to bang on the side bumps with a hammer (from the inside out) to loosen them up.

They fixed this problem on the Mark2 by redesigning the sled slightly, after seeing Brian Mihulka's work-around. Brian made some C-shaped cuts around the side bumps in the sled (picture). This is how the Mk2's side bumps are now implemented.

I think I'll put this one in the FAQ.

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Tony Fabris