The connector marked 'debug' is probably the one you mean. It has 5 pins, so 1 too many for a standard GND/+/Rx/Tx connector. I've already measured that it supplies 3.3V, so conversion to TTL is necessary.

I still assume that the problem lies in the IDE bus. When fiddling with my fingers around the XTAL near the ARM CPU (yes, I know I shouldn't do that) I can get the screen to blank and the player to stop responding to anything. It at least tells me that the CPU is running and executing commands (well, ejecting the CD every time, but that's better than nothing).

I've already taken a more detailed look at the board and there are 3 3.3V/TTL buffers/line drivers between the CPU and the actual IDE bus. Maybe I'm lucky and it's just one of them that is behaving strange. I'll hoop up my scope and see what I can find.

Problem of course is how to replace them - I've done this sort of work before using a normal soldering iron, and although I manage I can tell you it's not a job for the fainthearted...

I suppose there's nobody out there that has the actual schematics of the board? They would really really be helpful right now...

Jeroen