bunanson:

Sorry, I guess I left that out. Let me recall. I think what happened is that I picked up the dead device and aimlessly tried hitting the power button yet again, and to my surprise the LED and the blue-on-white Nokia screen came up but quickly blacked out again, no startup bar on the bottom even started. I did that a few times and it was the same thing. I think it was unplugged from the AC adapter for a while. Now at this point, plugging in the AC still didn't bring up the charging icon. What finally did it is unplugging the AC, hitting the power button (which did bring up the LED and the Nokia screen), and immediately plugging in the AC adapter during the Nokia screen before it cut out again. I have no idea why it had suddenly started doing the proper LED/"Nokia" thing instead of just sitting like a dead brick, but once it did I was able to resurrect it like this.

I'm pretty sure the cutting out after the Nokia screen happened because the battery had finally drained. I'm not sure if it charges the battery at all when it's in its bricked/dead state. Again, I can't offer any advice as to why the LED/Nokia all of a sudden started working again. MAYBE you could try leaving the battery in, AC unplugged, and try turning it on now & again. I might have caught it just at the right point when the low battery caused some internal state to become inconsistent in a good way. My battery is still fine and holds a charge for hours, so that wasn't the problem.

I am running OS2008 after doing the in-parts update from the Linux flasher I described, so that part is done. I'm not sure if it will "take" for a full reflash when the next release comes out, so that'll just have to wait. It is working and I've installed some programs and haven't had any real problems besides the new web browser taking up all the RAM and preventing stuff from opening.