Hi mz558! I'm sorry about not replying sooner... I check in here weekly, but you're welcome to come over to Facebook (Meep Tablet US) as well where we have staff at all times of the day and night
To your questions:
1. If your Meep is stuck on the loading screen, there are 2 things to try. First, fully rebooting, sliding the power switch off and back on. Also, the reset button on the back side. If those don't work that's usually a hardware issue and our call center are the ones who handle those. It's likely to be covered under warranty and a replacement may be in order if they can't help you resolve it. You do lose your items including preloaded content if you do the reset, but they are easily recovered in the Meep Store. It sounds like you tried this, but did you also try fully rebooting?
2. We do have firmware packages on the site, but not linked into the main home page... you would go to meeptablet.com/ota. You could try updating your Meep which will improve its overall function, but I think you'd need to be able to boot up to complete the process. If you wanted to send me the serial# of the Meep, I could tell you what version you are running now. But ultimately, you'll need to be able to boot up which we can't solve remotely other than with reboot and reset.
3. Development has told me that no, you cannot install another OS- you can't even just turn it into a standard Android tablet. There may be a way out there that someone has found, but our development teams says no. Always be aware that modifications to your Meep at your own risk and may void the warranty.
Hope that helps! -Jill