Ok so ...
I tried everything I knew how to do with the limited resources I had. I restarted the phone using all the button tricks (including volume up) ... nothing worked.
I even opened the sucker and inspected for damage (i keep it in a Nuud case, so I knew it wasnt water, but checked anyway). I disconnected the battery. Tried two other batteries I had (one of which i purchased as "new" -- but in all honesty, it didnt look new, and another which was the OEM original for that phone that i replaced back in March). I even tried with the battery out and powering the phone with the lightning cable. Nothing. Every time i got the same result of just the iPhone turning on to the white Apple logo and then shutting off after a few minutes.
I also tried forcing the iPhone into recovery mode and then restarting it. After that, it always wanted to return to recovery mode so I used a Windows software tool to return it to normal boot mode ... still no change.
I was able to force the iPhone into recovery mode and when I did, iTunes would prompt me to "upgrade" or "restore". I obviously tried upgrade first, but to no avail. The iPhone would respond to iTunes by restarting at the proper time, and then would display the update screen (white Apple logo with the progress bar underneath) but the progress bar would remain at 0% and the phone would hang there indefinitely. iTunes would eventually throw and error (error 24 or 27 or something related to a possible hardware fault).
As much as I didnt want to, I finally resorted to clicking on the restore button. Restore took 4-5 hours, but it did the trick. Phone is back and working now ... though I'm leery of it still. Was it a hardware problem that caused me to get into this situation in the first place? Is my phone somehow weaker now? Could it happen again at any time??? Gosh. Who knows? Perhaps when I initially noticed it was slow, the OS was in the middle of a critical task and restarting the phone corrupt something. I'm not sure I'll ever know. Even when I called Apple Tech Support, they showed no indication of caring or even hearing about the issue and kept offering to take my money for a tech support call even after the operator told me it was probably just easier to replace. Really? Thats the game now? Sigh. I digress ...
¡¡¡LOOK!!! Anyway. Here's my biggest takeaway: I was always under the assumption that doing a "Sync" to iTunes automatically included a backup. This appears not to be the case. I backup sync my phone regularly. iTunes gave me clues that indicated my last backup?/sync? had occurred in late June. This could be confirmed by actually navigating to the backup folder location on my PC and seeing that yes ... some files were as recent as late June. Perfect. HOWEVER, when the restore started, all of the sudden I was informed that my last backup was from March. This appears to be more the case, as when the restore completed, everything was back to March. This isnt a HUGE deal, as I'm somewhat happy to have the phone working at all, but it is still a nuisance. After a lot of research on the web, I've found that many people believe a sync automatically includes a backup, however a few others have confirmed that, in fact, it does not. Only occasionally (not sure of the time/event/logical trigger) does a sync actually perform a full backup. Lesson learned. You must manually click the backup button in iTunes. Arg.
Good luck to everyone.
-ijf
