Well, before going any farther, check to see that one of the fuses is genuinely blown by using a multimeter. If not, then you might simply be experiencing continued problems with the jury-rigged cable.

If you don't currently own a multimeter to test the fuses, then I humbly suggest that's an indicator of the level of hardware hacker you are, and thus might be better served by sending the player to Stu or Rob.