[NTLK] Help with forgotten pin and, separately, resurrecting an upgraded MP2000

[Brian Mikol]

Hi all,

Pardon the long-time lurking since I last posted, but I’m hoping that the community might be able to help me get out of two separate conundrums that have past data I’m hoping can be salvaged (and yes, I swear, once I’m back up & running I’m all over a proper backup solution).

1.The big anniversary prompted me to dust off my last daily-driver, whose pin, regrettably, I’ve forgotten.

After finding a recommendation/pointer from Grant for Battering Ram Pro, I got it installed on a card via a spare and sure enough, after it loads the card, the pin keypad disappears… but the splash screen remains. I’ve left it alone to see if it was extremely slow in being dismissed, but it never disappears to reveal the main UI. 

Randomly poking around the screen doesn’t result in any change. I’ve even tried booting it without the internal extensions (but booting the card), but no change. Thoughts? I’m at a complete loss as to what I should/could be doing differently in order to get into the UI and disable the pin.

2. Separately, my original MP2000 (that I bought new back in the day and upgraded to a 2100) needs more help than that: I stupidly left alkalines in the battery tray way longer than I should’ve and they exploded inside – after which the Newton refuses to boot, even when plugged into the AC adapter. Is it officially an Ex-Newton, or is there hope in resurrecting it? I understand that conducting hardware surgery is strongly discouraged if it can be avoided, but I’m willing to entertain braving the exercise if it will result in seeing it come back up.

Thanks in advance for any help on either issue (and a belated one for all the silent assists throughout the years)!
Brian