Unable to unbrick Sansa c250, unable to install Rockbox

[dventimi]

I tried to install Rockbox 3.0 using the Rockbox installation utility. I did the Quick Install, and it reported installing the firmware, installing Rockbox, and installing the fonts correctly. It did not install the themes, but I figure that's no big deal.

After unmounting the USB disk from my computer, then powering down the player, then powering up, here's what happens.
1. The screen flashes the Sandisk splash screen repeatedly.
2. I hit the power button, and now the screen flashes the following, repeatedly:
Rockbox boot loader
Version: 4.0
Sandisk Sansa c200
Partition 0: 0x06 1939
Partition 1: 0x84 20 M
Loading Rockbox...
Can't load rockbox.mi4
File not found
3. Unable to get out of this mode, I plug the USB cable back in.
4. Player shows "Connected" screen, and player appears as a drive on my computer.

My player appears "bricked", so I try to unbrick it using the instructions here: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/vie...nsaE200Unbrick
1. Unmount drive from my computer
2. Unplug USB cable.
3. Player says "Refreshing Dabase", then successfully returns to the default Sansa firmware.
4. I power down.
5. Were I to power back up, instead of going to the default Sansa firmware, the flashing screen thing would happen again. Trust me, I've tried this.
6. So, I try to unbrick, by activating the Hold switch, then holding down the Rec button while powering up.
7. Player doesn't enter recover mode. Instead, it just goes to the flashing screen again.

I'm now at a loss.