My Sony 505 went dead and wouldn't start again. When charging, the red light would burn, but the reader would not switch on...
I have tried pretty much everything, with no avail

but alas, today I decided to charge it with my Ipaq powersupply (did that before) and connect it to the usb port at the same time. that did it- works perfect now

hope everybody manages to fix their reader
cheers,
kaas