I'm having the same problem with a 5V Pro Mini from Gravitech with a FTDI usb basic breakout board. I've tried every possible combination of RX/TX/DTR/CTS pin connections, and tried pressing reset at a zillion different times while watching the code compile/upload. i've also tried different board selections in the processing ide (started with run.bat).
no luck: whenever i turn on the pro mini or release the reset button the green LED gives a sequence of flashes that starts slow and gets faster and faster. the bootloader seems to be ok because i get a single green flash after every reset before it goes into the sequence.
what does the sequence mean? frustrating...