I believe that my player is just running ver 1.03.

The serial cable is the one that came with the empeg. I am sure the cable works fine, as a friend of mine recently used to to upload a few songs to his empeg, as he was having issues with USB.

I have tried and tried to get it to connect, but it will not. I have read every FAQ entry and every thread I can find about it.

I am just double checking something, but should hyperterminal be able to communicate even with no hard drive installed? Seems to me like it should.