Need help trying to defibrillate flat-lined W580i

Hey guys/gals, I'm hoping someone here can help me repair my trusty SE W580i. I've had this phone for almost three years and it works extremely well for me, so I have no desire to replace it. I understand that after three years it may have simply kicked the bucket with no hope of returning. If nothing else, I would really like to access the phone memory to retrieve data I have on the Notepad.

Symptoms: phone will not power on. A single red LED blinks/flashes briefly when I hold the power button or plug in the wall charger. This happened with no warning; one minute it was fine with a >90% charged battery, the next it was completely unresponsive. A battery store tried a fresh battery with no change in symptoms. A cell repair store claims the "brain" is dead and they cannot repair. I've started to learn a little about debranding, which sounds like it might bring the phone back to life, but I'd lose the Notepad data during the flash.

Does anyone have any ideas what might have happened, or how I can get the phone working again?

edit: wow, sorry about all the hyperlinks in the text, does that always happen?

---

› See More: Need help trying to defibrillate flat-lined W580i