Got a blank, "dead"(?) device? Not so fast, there might be some clues remaining!
At least it might still be possible to get it to do USB storage transfer.
I've got a PRS-T1 with what seems to be display problems (stays blank whatever I do).
No reset efforts whatsoever helped (restricted to those suitable for firmly staying in non-rooted / non-recovery areas...).
PRS-T1 "Data Transfer Mode" still worked, though:
I wrote a nice little shell script (Linux) to immediately detect a newly registered device:
# cat /usr/local/sbin/prs_t1_rescue.sh
#!/bin/sh
while :; do
for suff in b c d b1 b2 c1 c2 d1 d2; do
dd if=/dev/sd${suff} of=/dev/null count=1 2>/dev/null && echo "sd${suff} OK" || echo -n '-'
sleep 0.03
done
done
(make sure to adapt the list of devices to not include any PC-side ones)
Then I tried hitting the "Data Transfer Mode" acknowledge button that's supposed to appear on the display once connected to PC. Guess what - it worked, it did specifically connect USB storage right after managing to hit the correct area on the *blank* screen (see e.g.
http://t1-reader.ru/articles/howto-flash.html and "help with getting books onto PRS T1"
http://www.sony.ru/discussions/message/720122 for images that show the Data Transfer Mode button display location).
Removing existing content of the internal storage did not help to make it work *in my case*, however. IOW, for me unfortunately it's an almost-DOA RMA case (wow, acronym party!
. Oh well...