Problem w/ Apex 703

[vabeachmike]

I bought an Apex 703 from a local electronics store and when I brought it home, I wanted to flash it to be able to watch my R2 DVD's. After much research in your forum I decided that I had BT865 firmware since it was manufactured in 10/00. I didn't want to open the case and void the warranty. Well after a few days and a few DVD's all was well, until the other day it BLEW UP! I was beginning to watch a movie and the title menu came up, and locked up midway through it. I had to turn off and on the power just to get it to eject. When it did the laser side of the DVD I was watching was scorched. It left a silverish flash pattern residue on the DVD. Then the player would not reconize ANY media. I returned it and now have a new Apex 703 that got shipped to me from the electronic store. The problem is the manufacturing date is now 8/00 and I want to make sure that I use the right flash to update it. Someone please let me know which one to use and if anyone knows what the hell happened to my first DVD player.

[statuspending]

all i can say is this.

don't let the magic black smoke out. as an electrical engineer, i can't convey to someone how freaking hard it is to put that stuff in there.

don't ever let out the magic black smoke.

[unknutty]

Another problem is that the 703 has a tendacy to eat disks.
I had a 703 for quite literally a week, when I had to take the cover off to reveal the munched VCD. It somehow got lodged UNDER the 3disk carousel. Which also scratched the top of the VCD and made it unreadable. Needless to say I returned the malfunctioning P.O.S. to the store. Be careful with this one.