This is a strange problem. I woke up this morning to find my n9 frozen on the totally non-responsive icon menu homescreen. Long-pressing the power button didn't turn off the device.

The homescreen was odd looking because the status bar was completely gone.

I unplugged the phone and waited to see what would happen when the screen timed out at 3 minutes (i.e. the duration where I have the time-out feature set). The time-out caused the entire screen to go totally blank, though normally it would be my low-power screen with Billboard, Meecast widget, and time.

Even more strangely, without touching anything, the device woke itself up in about 15 seconds and went back to the non-responsive icon menu homescreen. If I leave it alone, it goes through the cycle of frozen homescreen for 3 minutes to blank screen for 15-20 seconds, back to frozen homescreen. Sort of like the reboot-loop, but without rebooting.

The other odd thing is that the phone is not dead. I have Shake to Light, which activates the torch when you shake the phone, and that works fine. I also have Easy Answer, where you can answer the N9 by holding it to your ear, and that also works fine, so my N9 is alive in there somewhere! If I place a call to my phone, the usual Call UI pops up, but the on-screen buttons don't work--I have to use Easy Answer, which uses the accelerometer.

When in the Call-UI, the quick-launch menu will activate with a swipe from the bottom (so there is some screen touch recognition during the call), but the on-screen shortcuts do not work and accessing the normal launcher doesn't work. :-(

Does anyone have a good way to get my N9 to turn off? My power button can usually turn on the phone when it is off, but does not turn off the phone--even with long press.

I have considered flashing my rootfs, but I'm not sure how this loop issue might screw with those efforts. I have also considered letting the power run down to cause a shutdown, but since flashing recommends having at least 50% power, I'm not too thrilled with that option either.

I have a Windows 7 PC, but connecting my N9 via USB does not show the device. Nokia Suite couldn't find it either when it was plugged in by the USB cable.

I do have admin privileges with the router the N9 is on, and I know the N9's root password, but SSH isn't set up on the device (though if someone could clue me into a way to do it, that'd be great).

Please Help!