[ORANGE] Major problem with C500 wont switch on past sunset boot up screen

[JackDanie1s at aol.com]

I have a major problem with my SPV C500.The phone froze whilst switched on,  
(not for the first time either, a fairly common problem with these phones  
apparently), it wouldnt respond to any buttons so as in the past when this has  
happened I have simply removed the battery and replaced it and switched back on 
 and everything has always been ok.
 
This time though it will switch on but sticks on the 'sunset' boot up  
picture and goes no further (screen staying fully lit), buttons do not respond.  
Power off button doesnt respond either.
 
I know one solution is by doing a hard reset to restore the phone to  factory 
default.You do this by holding the two soft buttons down and power up  button 
for 1 second.This does look like it would work, but apparently it wipes  all 
the data on the phone.
 
How can I resolve this without losing the data? There must be some way of  
getting the data out of the phone? The MS activesynch cable doesnt activate when 
 connected.Obviously its the contact data which is most important to recover. 
Is  there a website for the manufacturer?
 
I have never been entirely happy with this phone, seems the features are  
clagged together like a badly written shareware program. Basic idea of the phone  
is good but is buggy and flawed.