MP3 Player bit the dust

My 20 Gig MP3 player bit the dust yesterday, after years of good service. It is a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3. It looks like an el cheapo CD player, so nobody wanted to rip it off. It has line level inputs and outputs so you could record on it and playback from it.
Yesterday I was trying to do a firmware upgrade and it erased the old firmware and won't load the new, so it can't boot up.
I spent most of the day yesterday, trying to git 'er workin again, but no luck.