I assumed it was a power management issue as it won't charge batteries anymore (hasn't for years) but that could of course just be dead batteries! (One of them was a new NuPower MaxCapacity in 2005, which I seem to remember lasted about 5 years, but its final act was to run down and not charge up, which is what made me suspicious)

Edit: This particular Pismo also has broken USB, but that's another thread!