Vita frozen on "please wait" loading screen

I just bought a Vita PCH-1101; while turning it on for the first time (after charging it) I was able to choose language, time zone, date and time with no issues. But instead of going to straight to settings the next screen reads "please wait", and it stays on that loading screen. The longest I've left it running on that screen was 4 hours with no change at all. I've tried rebuilding the database, reformatting the memory card, and restarting the system.