I come from the IT side of the computer industry. Ever since flash memory (firmware that can be re-programmed) not eprom or eeprom came to be used, we have always had a low level of this type of wierdness going on. Sometimes a router or firewall will lock up or do wierd things, and a re-flash fixes it. Sometimes a server exibits bizzare behavior system wide and a bios flash/update fixes it also. I have not re-programmed my
Mercury II with the latest Fortec flash due to warranty issues, but I bet a re-flash could help.
I bought a couple of e-bay specials (Fortec lifetime ultra and Pansat 2500) with "other persons's code" and had all sorts of goofy behavior, till I Jtagged one to factory code and the other with serial loading. Both are functioning well now on factory code.
Larry