Thanks Everyone.
Yeah. FW=Firmware or Code, sorry.
I will give this all a shot. Like I said, the more ideas I have to try to systematically trouble shoot this the better so if anyone else reads this and thinks of anything, please let me know.
I will report back later this week. I think I have a few SD cards lying around that I can try as well, they should all be quality Sandisk ones.
Curious though, does anyone know if you can go back levels in "code" or have they tried it? I did see a guy who loaded the wrong code on a game so I am thinking it probably doesn't matter if you go up or down in versions.