I have an MX-850 that is 2.5 years old and some of the keys hardly work--the volume and the FF--you have to push very hard. I took it apart and didn't see any dirt or anything--it there anyway to fix this. I called Universal and they want $100 to service it--might as well just buy a new one for that much.

What have you done to that remote. I have one of the first MX-850's when it was called Orion not Aeros and it has been a trooper. Are the buttons "crunchy" or just hard to push?

Haven't done anything it--its gotten a lot of use in that 2 and a 1/2 years. The Volume and FF buttons are used a lot more than any others because we almost always watch DVR shows--so my guess is that somehow the contacts wear out over time.

At this point I am just wondering if there is any way to fix it.

You can take the remote apart and try electrical contact cleaner under the buttons and on the board to see if it helps. I just bought a broken MX850 from the classified forums here for $25 and swapped the buttons out. The board was fine on my remote. It seemed that the 'pressure plate' on the button itself had worn out, because I swapped the buttons from an MX800 and the remote worked fine. I actually wanted a good set of MX850 buttons because I wanted to make my own ML600 clone.

Where do you get electical contact cleaner?

radio shack should have some.

You can use alcohol if you wish.

Contact cleaner comes in two varieties - with or without silicon. I'd recommend without unless you are using it sparingly. I would not spray it. Dampen a q-tip and scrub the traces and the pads on the underside of each button.

Others may have done better but my limited experience is that worn buttons can't be resuscitated fully but just given a few more weeks to live...