The friction on my handle doesn't seem to be against the fascia, but due to the metal locking tabs rubbing against the inside of the case. A minor tweaking with a pair of pliers helped immensely. (You have to take the fascia off to do this, and be extremely careful about the display! It doesn't take much force to tweak the tabs.)
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Mk2a 60GB Blue. Serial 030102962 sig.mp3: File Format not Valid.