I usually advise people to use the end connector on the cable as it's the middle one that seems to have the poor crimp. Bending the cable or attacking it with a pair of pliers works too. These are temporary solutions though.

Spare parts like drive cables are sent by standard post - previous experience suggests that it can take up to two weeks for things to arrive in the US.

As far as the warranty goes, the drive cable is a faulty part that we know about - I'll always send out a replacement regardless of how the user got the player (unless I know it's stolen, of course) and regardless of warranty status.