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The scorch mark is normal. Part of the VFD manufacture.

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That's a relief then, although I suspected it was possible. Scorch marks don't happen by dropping things.

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I am surprised how many times the hard drive had to retry. It found it, and you could sync, but maybe the cable is loose but still making contact.

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I have to admit I would have expected there to have been more problems if the hard disk cable was loose. It's certainly nice and tight on the drive. I will take the drive tray off and have a good peer around the motherboard this evening. Hopefully I'll just find the VFD cable has popped off or slipped or summat.

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You see nothing on the VFD even while booting? Perhaps the VFD cable is loose on the main board as well?

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This is what's really puzzling me. As far as I know that's the only connection between the front panel - which has the VFD, buttons and IR on it - and the motherboard. If it were off completely, I wouldn't be able to see the screen, use the buttons or the remote - all true, except I can put the player into and out of standby by holding the top button down. So there must be some connection. I can't even use the top button to pause and unpause the player. What on earth could cause this?

I haven't heard anything back from support yet - will keep on hoping. I have to admit I haven't been following the BBS too closely recently - what's the current state of play regarding support?

Hoping for the best,

Paul