Hi Jack
I don’t think it has anything to do with the Pico firmware. The same problem happened when I was testing the PicoCalc eBook Reader firmware which is very small.
I loaded PicoMite for Pico 2 this morning and I have the exact same symptoms. - First boot after inserting batteries the header message is typed very slowly. Power off/on and the Power LED turns off then immediately off.
The version of webmite/picomite I am using is 6.01.00 RC27e downloaded from this post.
I also this morning I loaded PicoWare v1.6.0 MicroPython version for Pico2W. First boot after remove/replace batteries is the PicoWare animation graphic displayed normally, and I could run pico ware apps no problem. (It did take longer to startup however then I normally see) Power off/on..Green led lit and went out…same symptoms.
I know the batteries are good since I just topped up the power a day or so ago.
Let me know if there is anything else you want me to try before I go back to 1.4……Brian