Ok so I just spoke to him. He had a friend of a friend who apparently works on saws take a look. He put fresh gas in it, ran it, and gave it a tune. He seems to think its fine because he ran it in wood.
Still makes no sense for the abrupt shutdown and locked up starter cord. He's considering taking it to a stihl dealer in collegeville PA just to have a look over. It's a mystery.
Look over by a Stihl pro would be a good thing.
Not really a mystery. Several reasons for such issues that should be diagnosed by a competent person. I may have also seen few pages back where you mentioned that the saw appeared to be very warm or hot. (this excess heat causes piston seizure in the jug) If saw had been running at full throttle and in a cut it probably would have completely ruined, but idling when it seized it may have just loaded to point of dying with minimal damage seizure, hopefully.
Here is one thread that has some hints. and look hint threads for others at the bottom of the page in your thread and at this link.
http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...hen-later-spins-ok.290338/page-2#post-5767169
Also if you want to get some experience working on chainsaws get yourself a pile of the new or used Craftsman, Poulans, little bitty homelites and then you will know a good made saw when you see one.
Some of the Craftsman chainsaws (POULANS) have in big BLACK letters (should be big RED warning letters)
FOR OCCASSIONAL USE ONLY on the front page of the owners manual.
This is a heads up hint to expect troubles constantly if you need to do some real work with the craftsman/Poulan saw.
The Craftsman saws are good saws for getting constant chainsaw experience, no great loss if you screw them up, can easily get more $$ in parts into one than a new replacement saw would cost, you should have 3 or 4 as parts saws and try to take all of them and make one when repairing these occasional use saws instead of the high dollar Stihls for experience.