OK --
Tried to flash one more time, this time with no HD connected. Got the smiley face, disconnected power supply, reconnected after opening HyperTerminal and get this:

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 ([email protected])
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

As you can see, I no longer get the data abort vector message but then again, it looks like the kernel isn't loading.

Any more suggestions?

-Chris