MPx220 won't shift to text mode

[Guest oldtimer]

My MPx220 died a couple months ago due to low battery. I ended up having to do a master reset after recharging. Ever since then I can't get the phone to switch to character mode (pushing the * key) . I've done several master resets and it doesn't seem to help. Looks like I'm up-to-date at v1.43. Any suggestions? I have a folding bluetooth keyboard that works fine for text but I don't carry it around with me.

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