Update:
It is beginning to appear that cleaning / reseating the front panel connectors -mainly the big one- may fix these units for their variety of unusual problems (no power, front LED blinking, tray cycling, no audio, etc). Seems to have fixed a couple lately - but of course they could still come back for re-do's. Recommend Caig Red (non-aerosol) - I think it's the D-100 - for treating the contacts. Blows my mind that new units with new, really, really tight connectors could have these problems, but there you are. Requires a major dissassembly to access the connector at the front panel side.
Mark Z.