My AF360FGZ-ii flash is a little over two years old and out of warranty now. I'd sent it in once under warranty to have the battery door replaced, and it's been a good workhorse for me until now.
Yesterday I checked it before an event and found it wouldn't stay on: it made a loud constant grinding noise for a while, then displayed a low battery error. Put in fresh batteries and the same thing happened again. I ended up using a cheap manual flash last night, and fortunately there was enough time to set up and preview the levels beforehand, so it worked out.
If I had to guess I'd say there are stripped gears in the power zoom mechanism. I've heard the same noise from it a couple of times before, but it would go away after a few seconds and then work normally. But it finally got to the point where it just grinds till it shuts down.
After poking around here and dpreview for similar reports, I took someone's advice to whack the side of the unit. Now it won't come on at all.
Any recommendations? Most likely I've got a little paperweight on my hands, right?