Sample input on MPC60 freaking out!

I haven't done any sampling with it in a while but I ran across a trick to use the 16-level button for chopping loops on this forum and wanted to try it out. So I loaded a loop into my other sampler and went to sounds-sample new sound, set it for the appropriate time and played the loop. Red light came on and all was looking good until I tried to playback, just a tiny little click/pop, silence for about 4 seconds, then another click on the way out. ? Checked all the connections, switched cords, all that stuff went around front to try again when I actually took a look at the Sample New Sound screen, the meter read as follows:
Meter:T>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Checked the board, all connections again and found no noise anywhere so I thought maybe it just freaks out once in a while.
So I figured if something is making it trigger record at the normal level I would push the T past the noise and see what happened (The level in switch is usually kept at low and was for this as well if that makes a difference.)
Well I heard the sample, it was right behind this curtain of digital hash, no silence like the first attempt.
Tried again with different sounds, and the machine would either trigger itself with the noise in the meter and give me a silent sample w/ a small pop in and out or if I pushed the T back up nasty digital.
Ok, step back, these things are old, turn it off, unplug it, chill out, have a beer and when I get back everything will be fine.
When I came back I powered her up and went straight to Sounds-No5 and the meter still read:
Meter:T>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> !
(Exclamation point mine.) And this was with nothing plugged in to the Rec. In!
That was four hours ago and I have been looking all over the net and here for info to no avail.
All my old samples play fine, no glitchy noises that I've noticed and the ind. outs seem ok as well. It is only sampling that I have this problem, please help!

Fixed it!
Found a thread on a similar (sort of) problem and one suggestion that wasn't expanded on was the seating of the ribbons and RAM upgrade. Ram was fine (Legit chip, no hacks) but upon following a ribbon from the audio in board was 1/2 hanging off the mother board! Pins looked fine so I re-sat the cable, booted up, success! Everything works flawlessly!
Thank goodness, I was so worried that someone w/ more knowledge here was going to reply "You are F***ed."
Back to work!
PS I did try the vel/start point trick, fun but it seems a bit limited with the points of the vel divisions being set but equal. I'm not giving up though, next I'm going to try to setup an unused pad bank to trigger the mono sample with set velocities on every pad. Anyone tried this? Don't remember if this kind of thing is allowed it the MPC .PGM.
Glad I found this group! You will find me lurking around looking for new (to me at least) tips and tricks.
(Here's one, 1/2 remove the ribbon cable from the audio in board from the mother board for crazy, unmanageable digital squelch with your sample hiding somewhere in the back. This can't be good for your machine and I personally don't plan on using circuit bending techniques on something I've dumped almost a G on (60 came in great shape but w/ os2 and no upgrades, is now maxed) over the years.)

Re: Idea in above post.
Doesn't seem possible, even dug up manual, I guess I'll stick w/ my S3000XL for chopping, que sera.

Something similar happened when I installed my new backlight on the 60 II. I accidentally yanked one of the wire harnesses for the headphone jack and my volume control didnt work. I took a breather opened it back up and found out my mistake.

Yes people are very helpful on this board