OK, so the pads may be clean, but did you look inside the remote to make sure there was nothing obvious that you may have bumped, touched, re-assembled incorrectly, etc?
I know that it seems obvious, but sometimes the most confusing things to diagnose are the most obvious and (sometimes) silly things that we are SURE we couldn't have done.
Sometimes when electronics aren't working correctly, taking the cover off/taking them apart and LOOKING at them REAL HARD then putting them back together seems to fix the problem. :-) Any electronic tech knows what I mean by that.
Jim