KR> i dont see any reason why reversing the battery polarity should
 KR> fix a digital device, i'd more expect the opposite, so - any
 KR> ideas?

  It's probably the only way you can clear the RAM.

  Our washing machine used to self-recover from brownouts (low mains)
by checking a reference number in RAM against ROM. The theory was that
if the number was right, then the program in RAM would also be right,
and the washing machine could go ahead and finish the wash cycle from
where it was, rather than start again. Otherwise, it reset and started
again. 

  The incredible part was that the RAM never lost its memory. It
worked quite happily down to 0.3V, and if you just disconnected the
mains, the charge on the electro would keep it alive four hours. We
found later, that if the RAM was corrupt, the only way to clear it was
to reverse the voltage... or increase the voltage and then reset. It
wouldn't reset from low voltage, because the reset circuitry failed 
before the RAM.

Regards,
Bob
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
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