Hard to know what the issue was, one electronics tech at avsforum blamed the types of connections on the boards as being the likely culprit. Quickly like a computer that won't boot up.
Second one after the wild volume swings (like from -30 to +10) where I feared for speakers, it just devolved quickly to the point of being similar to the first as to responsiveness in trying to power up/reset....
They were selling refurbs for $900 new for $1000 at the time, but didn't want to risk a third refurb for $100 (just replacing the avr with my older unit from the bedroom system each time, plus setting up an even older one in the bedroom system was a pain!).