OK, probably not what everybody would run into:
I suspect the /dev/hda4 partition on my player is dead, so I format the /dev/hda2 partition, swap the device files /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda4, mount the partition and mkdir /drive0/var
When connecting with mplode, everything seems OK. When creating a playlist, emplode dies without a warning, and nothing in the attached log.
mkdir /drive0/fids fixed the problem, and I now probably have the most expensive 32MB MP3 player ever.

I don't want to do anything to the real music parition until I get some help... There are hours and hours and hours of un-backed-up work there.

Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II)