Yeah, I've see KJ in a lot of posts - it seems like he knows how to unsolder the entire Nav unit & put it back together with chewing gum - I think he's really MacGuyver

Based on some more tests I've run, I'm pretty sure that the CD laser still works, so in a worst-case scenario I could probably still run the unit from CD's instead of DVD's (ugh!)

However, I'm hoping that X5Crew was right about the upgrades; I haven't been able to get a CD of V30 that the drive will read yet, but I think that is due to the disk burning process and *not* a bad CD laser. From what I read, the MKIV is pretty finicky about home-burned disks, so I'll just keep trying until I get one that the unit will read.

It seems like all the new folks in this forum have a really tough time until after the first time they upgrade their Nav unit, and then once you do it the first time successfully, it goes a lot easier after that.

I guess I just have to get through my first time ...