> I've only ever had a hard lockup once, where I couldn't even
> reset the device with the reset button, and that was when (I think) the
> battery reached a pretty low point and at the same time the hard drive was
> being accessed. I'd had my H140 for a while by then, at least a year and a
> half, coming on two years, so it may have just been that the device was
> getting towards the end of its life cycle (used almost daily)...

It's also possible the button just wore out or the solder broke. I have
been using a paperclip on mine, and whilst it worked great for a while,
lately I have to hit it more precisely for it to work. I think the
sharpness may have worn the button a bit (I'll check next time I open it).

> Once I did that and put it back together again, the device wouldn't boot
> at all, but I took it home, plugged it in and left it charging overnight
> and in
> the morning it powered up first time.

Did the reset button work again after that?

> But yes, I do believe that the reset button isn't a hardware switch at
> all,
> to me it looked just like a software switch just like the other buttons on
> the device.

It is a normal button, but not 'software' in the sense the others are (as it
works even with Rockbox hung) - most likely a CPU reset type signal, or
maybe it interacts with a very low level of the firmware.

--
gl