Hey Madbarry,
I would think that the receiver is ok since the remote is still controlling the receiver just fine. I have not seen that problem but I recently had a problem with a customer with a 975 receiver remote (It's looks the same except that the 975 remote has learning capability) and it would not retain its memory after being programmed.

Anyway, Sony tech support told me that on those series of remotes you can reset the remote's computer by taking out the batteries and pressing each key on the remote 2 times. Sounds weird but thats what they said and they also said that it was a common thing to happen that the remote will stop controlling equipment and this resets the remote.

I don't know if this will help, but it won't hurt to try.
Jeff406