Sony BDP-s500 Emergency!!!! :(

[El Chupacabra]

Had a BDP-s500 for about 5 months. Every now and again it froze as per reports and I recitfied the problem in the normal way. However, in the course of the past week the player started refusing to play regular dvds, displaying the message "can't play disc". After ejecting and trying again they would work. I have played several BDs since without problem. However, this morning while playing a BD I encountered a freeze. This then prompted me to shut off the power. However, when the machine restarted it now refuses to recognise any discs at all. I have tried DVDs, BDs and data discs, but none work. The player just thinks the disc tray is empty. I tried upgrading the firmware, but to no avial since it won't read the disc. I have left the player off for a while and nothing. I have performed a factory reset and nothing.

Any ideas? It's bank holiday weekend and having worked a long week at work and been entertaining the in-laws I was looking forward to catching up on a few flicks and now I'm sat here contemplating what to do. I obviously can't phone Sony as their helpline is online open during weekday office hours and both the manual and their website proved unhelpful on this issue. I have searched various forums and I'm now pulling my hair out. Any suggestions anyone has would be, very, very much appreciated. You may save my weekend!!!!