I've tried three different brands of CF cards (including a 128MB SanDisk), including reformatting them from my W2K box (turning off that infernal "hide extensions" options is one of the very first things I do on any Winblows box I come into contact with) and ensuring that they were formatted as 16-bit FAT. I had the files in the root directory. I tried OZ's 3.5.2 (24/8 Colie) release naming the files initrd.bin and zImage, as well as the original Sharp ROM v1.39 image (as both OSPACK and ROMIMAGE) shipped to me on CD with the Z. Same result each time - the two lights come on and stay on, period.
All OZ ROMs have md5sums available (md5sums.txt). You'd better verify them after you have copied them to your CF card. There even is a windows program to do that, just don't ask what it's called heh.
I have
DigestIT 2004 on my Windoze boxen. While I suppose technically I should check them after copying to the CF card, I tend to doubt anything went wrong with the transfer from my HD to CF cards...
Do not mess with the service menu. Ever.
If you want to brick your Z, this menu is your best chance.....
I wasn't even aware of the service menu's (SM) existence until I went searching for solutions to this problem, at which point it was
already bricked. Most of the non-obvious solutions I found involved the SM in some capacity or other. I understand and appreciate your warning, but in this case the problem caused the SM usage - not the other way around.
1. Verify the filenames: initrd.bin and zImage
2. Verify the md5sums of both files
3. If that doesn't help, buy another CF card (they are dirt cheap anyways)
4. If that still doesn't work, and only then as a last resort, try to flash a Sharp OSPACK
Unfortunately, this is the common response and advice I found in many places - have tried all that to no avail. Don't get me wrong - I really do appreciate you taking the time to write all this out and try to help me here, but I've spent the past two nights doing all the obvious stuff to no avail (along with the past two days at work sleepwalking through the day...). I was hoping maybe someone had some insight into the RAM test - does anyone else experience such freezing and yet still have normal operation of their Z? Or does anyone know what I can do about it? Does Sharp even still service the SL5000d (and if so, at what kind of prices)?
As an aside, in my frustration I also wrote to the person who sold it to me and it seems he feels badly about it and has very kindly offered a refund. I don't want him to feel screwed/taken either as he has no idea if I screwed it up or not (I know my skill level and my limits, and so I'm pretty darned certain I did not), so I'm still going to try working this problem out up until the point I ship it back to him. If anyone has any further suggestions, then I'd really appreciate hearing them.
Thanks again, all!