Can't charge/power on Nook HD+
Since the device showed brief activity (the six seconds which the status LED was illuminated) I set the owner of the Nook on a mission to force a trickle charge to the device.  Using the factory cable and USB power adapter plugged Belkin Conserve Power Switch to easily interrupt the power (a surge protector could work as well) they found that it was possible to give the device a minimal charge so that it would permit normal "unattended" charging.

The procedure that worked for them was:


Apply power
Interrupt power at the point the status LED would transition to amber
Wait some seconds before re-applying power and repeating (we don't recall how long it was exactly only that it was the minimum amount of time before the same illumination pattern could again be elicited; somewhere around 5 seconds)


After 15-20 minutes of this the device finally displayed the charging icon on the screen and has been functioning and charging as expected since.