I pulled my old, never programmed, TSU6000 sample out of storage with the intention of selling it. Thought it would be best to make sure it worked before offering it up. I plugged in the charger base, installed the battery pack and put the remote on the base where it proceeded to flash the "Philips... ProntoPro... Please Wait" screen then go blank, flicker and then beep. This cycle then repeats every 10 seconds. So, my question is: it the remote recoverable? is it a dead dog? is it worth what is might take to fix?

That can be the result of a bad/dead battery (it IS old), corrupt configuration file, damaged memory... bunch of things, really. First, I would try to see if leaving it on charge for a long while does anything.

If that doesn't work, try to perform a firmware update. Search the forum, there are some tricks for getting the computer to take control of the remote at the right time. Past that, you can try the manual telnet fix:

[Link: remotecentral.com]

Happened to me too exactly as you described.
Charging did not work for me. I t rebooted on the charger and after a few seconds it went into back to the same flasing PHILPS logo. I replaced the battery with a new one and it worked again.