I HATE making these threads and did a few searches before posting but can't find a similar issue to mine. Basically I was running my phone as a hotspot today and was out (my screen is broken so I couldn't turn it off) and when I got to my car I tried plugging it in but it wouldn't boot. The phone vibrates for a quick second like it;s about to turn on, the LED is a solid orange goes away and then it does that in a loop. Connected to the TV I can;t see anything and the screen doesn't appear to light up. I've tried my car charger, home charger and plugged into my laptop with not help. ANy ideas?

Have you tried reflashing the device?

How? I can't seem to get it into flash mode with holding down U.

It would be hard with a broken screen (depending on how broken it is).

What you can do is take the battery out and not have the device plugged into power or anything. Wait for 30 seconds plug in the USB cable to the computer whilst computer is already running the flasher program. Insert the battery and whilst inserting the battery have the device keyboard slid out and holding onto the `U' key.

I tried on both OS X and Windows (albiet Windows 8 Dev Preview) and couldn't get anything going. The orange light appears to stay on longer while holding down U but since I can't see anything I'm not sure if there's something I should be doing. I can test on Linux on Monday when I'm at work but I doubt that makes a difference.

I'm starting to panic a bit.

Ignoring if you can see anything on the screen, when you saw the orange/amber light going on and off slowly, keep holding it until the light should become steady.

If I remember correctly when I last flashed my device, I had to get the device into steady amber light. Mind you however that my screens do work so I could actually see the USB icon on the screen remain static.

Also whilst you have held the device's `U' key what did the computer say? did it still refuse to see the device? what if you say for example created a simple loop to run the same command without any pauses as you try to get the device into flashing mode?

i know this sounds noob-ish but the battery might be out of charge, so swap a battery with charge before trying to flash.

Yes, you can try to flash only ther kernel
use this with the flasher:
flasher-3.5 -f --flash-only=kernel -R -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

goodluck

Updates. I left the phone on the charger all night and it kept boot looping. However before I left it on the charger I tried to boot it up twice and had progress the LED was a solid white the first time and the screen lit up but nothing showed up on the TV and then it shut down. The second time was similar except the LED was blueish (I might have the order reversed). I don't have another battery to test with but just ordered one hopefully the new one has enough juice in it so I can hopefully turn it on.

Currently the device has a long amber light then vibrates and I guess shows a dim Nokia logo and then fails - repeating this as long as it's plugged into the charger. This is really pushing me to buying a Nexus S.

Update 2. I had to go out and brought the phone with me. It still loops on the charger but it boots up when it's not plugged in the light has a bluish tint and the screen lights up then it turns to a white light for a bit then shuts off. The light is a solid color throughout.

Looks like the same problem I had.

1) If it loops it won't charge the battery
2) If the battery is flat, it doesn't go to update mode

-> Get another battery from a mates phone (some other nokias have the same type) / Charge your battery in a mates phone

-> Charge the battery externally over night with a 5V power supply+50 ohms resistor