Anyone know how to safely open the two housing halves of a RM-VL700? One of my three has "died", showing no signs of life after battery replacement, #600 sandpapering unseen corrosion off the battery contacts, stretching the contact springs to increase contact pressure, spinning the batteries around in their housing, swapping out with known good ones, good old fashioned banging the thing, etc.

My next step is to investigate if the internal-memory battery (or capacitor?) has given up the ghost (entirely likely, it's 10 years old), and is in turn 'shorting out' the remote's functionality. I removed the two phillips screws in the battery housing compartment, which definitely freed up the lower part of the housing's halves, but the upper portion (toward the IR-beam business end) remains locked down, presumably by hidden tabs that require a push-release with a fine screwdriver at the precise points. Otherwise it's force the thing open, potentially breaking the tabs or housing and/or marring the exterior with pry scars. I know, I've tried the same with a different, defunct remote just to see how it was done.

I love these guys too much to give up without trying (got three identically programmed ones parked at strategic parts of the domicile), and new ones, although surprisingly still available (old inventory clearance?), are currently going for $100 on amazon -- three times their original retail cost. If anyone knows of posted instructions or has first-hand experience on safely opening up a RM-VL700 or similar themselves, I'd love to hear from you. Mahalo!