I have had my VR-309 for six or seven years now. To be honest, I can't remember the last time the remote worked properly because it has been years. This past Christmas I replaced this unit with a Samsung.

Not being ready to discard the 309, I moved it to another room in my home. I was thinking that I could continue to deal with the problem on a TV that I watch less.

Last night I googled my way to this site and found this fix. Clearly this thread has been here for quite some time now, but I have only now decided to look for a solution.

Upon first inspection the three solder jonts looked fine. Under magification I could see that one of the three was weak so I resoldered that connection and now it's working like new again.

Many many thanks to everyone else who contributed to this thread.