Magic 3.1 and V7 refuse-to-work-funkyness

[pureangst]

Just modded my relatively new v7 (about a month old) with a red magic 3.1; took me awhile, but i managed to do it (first time modding - though not a stranger to soldering) thanks to all the info from this forum =).

So i pop in a dvd-r DMC2 ready to play, no problems! I leave the ps2 off for the night (turn off, not standby), and decided to game in the morning. To my disdain, the machine wont boot!

specifics:
signal wires - 30 awg solid core copper wires (not magnetic wires with enamel)
GND and 5v - me thinks 26 awg solid core copper as well. (i suspect something fishy here; will be getting 'real' 24 and 22 awg tomorrow)
electrical tape - for securing wires, and also insulating metal casing from wires (just placed some on underside of casing, where it'll probably touch the magic chip since it's raised above the mobo level)
60/40 rosin core solder, gel flux, 20w iron, razor to prevent bridging.

symptoms:
1. green and blue leds working fine when turning on (pressing reset), except shows black screen (not even electrons!). Spent a whole morning/afternoon inspecting and redoing some loose joints (in particular, solder joints that arent 'shiny' but more 'matte' in lustre).

2. When pressing eject, blue led pulses for 10 seconds, then opens the tray occasionally (1/3 tries? how does sony do that?), while other times it just stays inside. Combinations of reset and power off do nothing to open the tray.

3. On occasion, can get to browser screen, but requires an original ps2 disc inside drive (tray opens 1/3 tries). Clock is stuck (not a problem), but cant read any media at all (original, etc).

OK! frustrated and tired. Getting sick of the burning plastic smell from stripping wires and redoing them. But, a glimmer of hope! I minutely adjusted the four wire ribbon cable that runs from mobo to the dvd drive (the one without a tab for easy removal/install) and now it boots to electrons 2/3 times! but does nothing when i open tray to insert a game. so problem 1 is sorta fixed - improperly positioned dvd ribbon (this wire is truely sensitive so i found out from my afternoon of pain).

4. Now that it sorta works (eject is more reliable, 2/3 times no flashing blue led!), I try original games; they work nicely, though the load times are much more lengthy than before modding. Also, ps2 wont boot to electrons unless there is a disc inside. weird...

5. Tray ejects erraticaly; ie: sometimes it will shoot out, while sometimes it will sluggishly limp out. I've read about how this is related to the BA chips being overwhelmed with voltage, and my blue leds sometimes goes off, so i've decided not to push this any further.

I've gone through my damn mobo for two days now and still not much brighter about what's going on. No solder bridges/splashes, fuses are all fine (there's continuity), dvd drive is sparkling new, discs are clean, ribbon cables arent battered, and made sure each time i solder a wire i touch the wire and only briefly, so no worries about blowing a bios or something (i practiced on an old hard drive just to get a feel for the tiny pins on the bios).

I've also unsoldered the chip (but left the wires in) from the board, and symptoms remain the same (cant boot!) - but that's probably from the picky dvd ribbon cable.

Aside from maybe a thicker GND, 5v, reset wire, and careful adjustment of ribbon cables, anyone know what else might be wrong?

[Prican24]

check your gnd wire, try using 24awg for v5 and gnd
also keep all wires short as possible