Funny that you should say that, as my original idea for this thread involved an electronics version of Flatliners or the like.
As for Yamaha and Denon, I did consider them. I almost ordered the Yammy 663 from Amazon (I get free two-day shipping) to have it arrive today, but I don't really like the looks of it, and I wanted to do more research given that it doesn't have the THX surround mode that I've come to really like.
You make a good point, and I appreciate it. I tend to think that something inside locked up (a controller chip, perhaps) and that it needed to power down and discharge, it's just that I didn't leave it plugged in long enough after that to get it working. To all you electricians out there, I'm sure that sounds very stupid.