5500 will not boot

[zaphod_es]

I recently bought a used Zaurus 5500 running OpenZaurus. It worked perfectly for a couple of weeks and then one day it would not start properly or complete booting. I did not drop it or do anything that might have damaged it. The symptoms are not always identical but this is roughly what happens:

It usually does not repsond to the the On switch. After fiddling with the battery it then will usually start. Often I just have to toggle the remove battery switch, other times I have to remove the battery and replace it. I bought a new battery but that made no difference.


Then it starts to boot and I see the words OpenZaurus and the logo.
Instead of booting straight into the GUI it now stops at the shell with a "openzaurus login:"
The keyboard does not respond properly at this stage. Most normal keypresses are ignored but it interprets
d and m as the shift key
j as the shift key both on pressing the key as well as releasing it.
, (comma) as ?
Up arrow as something rather like a 9
Tab as Á
/ as E
Space as \
` as F
All keypresses with the function key produce something - usually two things with the press and then release.
Once I press d or m it accepts the input and asks for a password and then times out normally and asks for login details again


Being unable to enter the user name or password I have no idea what would happen if I could log in.


Any help or advice would be really appreciated as I really liked the Z.

ZB

[CoreDump]

The borked keyboard in combination with the login prompt indicates that you've
killed your installation. Just reflash the ROM, that's the only thing left in this case.

[zaphod_es]

Oh dear, I was afraid you would say that   I will give it a try and report back. Thanks

ZB

[zaphod_es]

It worked a treat and was dead easy - once I bought a memory card reader. Thanks for the help.

ZB