Cowon iaudio X5 won't power up

[dstromberg]

My cherished (I've used it every day since I got it) X5 v2 will no longer power up.

I got it just over a month ago.

I accidentally dropped it shortly before I noticed the problem.  It landed on a pergo floor (a laminated floor with a bit of padding underneath to make it "feel" more like wood when you're walking on it), partially suspended by the headphone cord.

When I next tried to listen to it again, the display was lit up and showed a rockbox screen (it was one of the menus), but:
1) The up/down arrow buttons were only working a small percentage of the time, or perhaps they had a very delayed reaction
2) The only sound coming out of the device was a somewhat periodic (skipping a beat here or there) clicking sound reminiscent of a hard disk click

So I stuck a piece of wire (the physical kind, similar to using a paper clip) into the reset hole, and the screen went black.

Now no amount of hitting the on/off button will make it come back on, hooking it up to a computer gives the same dark screen, and hooking it up to the charging cord via a subpack also gives that same black screen.

Is my X5 toast?

Are there any places that repair damaged X5's?

I'm semi-handy at hardware repairs, but when I opened up the unit, it wasn't clear to me how to get the hard disk or circuit board removed.

The Cowon website seems to say that there's a 1 month warranty, and I've just missed that.  Also, I tried to register for the Cowon forums about an hour ago, but I still haven't got the little authentication e-mail their website said they'd be sending.

Are there good protective cases for X5's?  For my PDA, I like to use an aluminum case lined with neoprene for protection - is there anything like that for Cowon DAP's?

Thanks!