M250 not starting/ powering up properly

I scanned through the topic titles at least, and didn’t see this mentioned, so…

I’m posting about my daughter’s player (mine’s an e series and workd great heh)  Hers is about a year and a half old, m25o 2GB, and it’s not starting properly. It’ll turn on when she hits the power button, then shut off, and nothing will start it up again.  I’ve checked the manual, various FAQ’s, etc.  The computer will read it, and the data is all there, but it will sometimes say that it’ll perform faster in a 2.0 usb port - except it is in a 2.0 port.  Also, even plugged into the computer, the screen won’t come up; I can read it as a drive, see the songs and recordings on it, copy them off… but I can’t turn it on to use the player.  Is this a firmware problem, is it just dying, what?

If it’s dying, is there another one out there that’s comparable, uses the portable batteries as opposed to a rechargeable one? she likes the portability of the batteries, for long trips and such, and I know the m250 isn’t made any longer.

Any help greatly appreciated!