The day the music died. My empeg dropped to the floor inside of it's padded bag at the office. Luckily the screen didnt break (which i replaced myself before) and the cable seems fine (which I have replaced as well). I am getting No Hard Disk Found message. I opened the box to find two burn marks on the motherboard. I have included a poor picture from a cell phone camera of the motherboard. The two marks rest between the screen and the shock mount plate. What do you think?

PS: I am dying without my empeg. I cant live without it.

Very carefully examine the display cable -- frequently this gets pinched by the hard drive bay on impact, cutting one or more of the wires on the display ribbon cable.

cheers

I opened the box to find two burn marks on the motherboard

Since it is unlikely that the player was actually in operation when you dropped it (inside the carry bag) the burn marks cannot be related to accident.

Check and re-check that the cables to the hard drive[s] are properly plugged in.

tanstaafl.

Oh, you did mention the "no hard disk found" message, so I guess the display is fine. Another thing to look at then, is the IDE header on the mainboard. Because the factory drive cable is too short to allow free movement of the drive bay, it sometimes causes the IDE header to be partially torn from the mainboard on impact..

Cheers