Yah, so, where to begin...
Just got this player from Greg Combs and haven't done anything to it except listen to random mix mode at home.
Then one night it was quiet... hadn't even finished the song it was playing.
Power Off/On allowed it to reboot, but the player would come right back to the instant in the song where it 'froze'.
Now, the song info isn't even displayed- in a band across the top of the screen it says "Info: Off"
No response to any face button control.
Tonight I'm playing with a PC that can talk to it, and I first tried emplode 2.10, but that would never find the player. (2.0 wouldn't either).
Ran Tony's visual editor and managed to upload Mark's Hijack v431 (no hijack was loaded previously).
It loved this and took to it well enough, but the player is still locked up... with the exception that hijack is available.
Vital Signs reports:
Mk2a: 16MB, 20GB
Playlist:0000,Fid:
Cac:821,Buf:101,Fre:118
LoadAvg:8.99 8.25 4.99 (these numbers bounce around a little)

That doesn't tell me much- so I went a little further and set up Hyperterm (I'm connected via COM1 the whole time here).
The boot log is attached to this post (v3a8 developer version- aha!).
I'm not that familiar with deciphering the bootlog, so I hope someone can tell me whether there's some useful info there...
Also found the RAM test in the FAQ (ctrl-T during boot) and could find no problems there.
At the recent SF minimeet, someone suggested that I delete the current playlist, but I have to admit to two things-
1. I don't know how to do that
2. I haven't scoured the FAQ yet (but I haven't given up)

Can anyone toss a bone to the n00b? Perhaps this is just child's play to one of you zen masters of Linux... call me a padewan.

Edit: just wanted to add that I tried some basic controls of the player while in Hyperterm: n, v, r, Q --all to no avail.