Phone Won't Unlock from Lockscreen

[Guest JulesB]

Earlier today the old SMS messages on my phone disappeared. This is not a particular problem, as they all go off to email, but I thought that a reboot might be a good idea.

When I rebooted, I got the usual SIM Pin code request and when this was accepted the numeric lockscreen popped up (I use this rather than the pattern). I entered the usual pin code and it would not accept it. I have tried this and every other pin number I can think of, and it will not unlock. I have tried various tricks to try and bypass the lockscreen (like dialing the phone and dragging down the notification bar when connected to the call), but none of this get me past the lockscreen. I also noticed that the ring tone has changed - so it sounds like something is screwed on my phone.

I was hoping that I would get the Google prompt to enter my Google account details once I had entered the wrong passcode a certain number of times, but this does not seem to work with the numeric code. Any ideas? I am away from home for a couple of days, so there are limited things I can do - I managed to boot into Recovery and take a Nandroid backup but that is about it. I could try re-flashing the ROM, as I think that this is still on my SDCard.

I am using Leedroid 2.3d ROM with A2SD.

Fortunately I have my Hero with me so I am not without a phone completely!