Any luck yet George?
Active sync or if using Win 10, Win Mobile Device centre has to be worth ago if it boots okay and its just the screen not working. Unfortunately WMDC does not like Win 10 straight out of the box, so if you don't know how to make it work watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBKlFYQktV4
Soft reset has always worked for me and I only remember having to hard reset on one occasion but I had the data on the SD card so it did not matter that I did a factory reset.
You could also disconnect and reconnect the ribbon cables from the screen to the main board, maybe a bad connection. Youtube again is your friend on how to do this.
If it really is the screen that's bust you could swap it with another one from spare pda.
As Cookie said earlier save to SD everytime to save all this hassle.
I hope it's not more Hammer Pot data thats stuck on the pda, it would be a bit of a bugger if you have to go back and do it again.
ps
it looks like you just sorted it. I have posted my reply anyway as it may help others in the future.