minimig just boots to a blue screen...

[yaqube]

If you can see the blue screen there still is a hope.

Does the DRIVE LED blink when the blue screen is visible? How many blinks can you see?

Connect a PC with a terminal program using null-modem cable. Set the SERIAL jumper to the MCU position on the Minimig board. Configure terminal to: 115200 bps, 8N1, no flow control. Then tell us what you see in the terminal when you power on your Minimig.

[yaqube]

The drive led is always off..

It seems you have to update the PIC firmware. You will need a null-modem cable to do this.

[yaqube]

Is there any "better" firmware to try?

There is a PIC firmware by Goran Ljubojevic which implements some features of the ARM controller. See this topic for further details.