GREENRAIL,
I am very patient with this stuff because I understand the foreign companies play business games with our US companies like Lionel, they supply faulty chips to our US Companies on purpose all the time, quality control in these foreign countries is almost impossible to really control, in fact Lionel has a complete repair shop here in the USA just because of these foreign companies doing business in this manner. In reality it's not Lionel fault, I am grateful Lionel fixes the problems as they do. The problem is the next set of chips installed in your unit may have been bad also, they have to keep replacing then until they get good chips installed, the chips can be good when tested and still have to be replaced after little usage, these foreign companies have this down to a business art form. Lionel is combating this QC sham as best they can, unfortunately to the purchaser it makes Lionel seem like it was their fault from the beginning. I have to admit Lionel has one heck of a serious repair shop, with talented knowledgable employees. Their shipping policy for Veterans is known world wide, a class act all the way. Lionel's business cost because of these foreign companies illegal business practices, must be staggering, the shipping contracts alone must be worth millions.
PCRR/Dave
