On inserting batteries or resetting my recently
purchased Pronto, the screen displays nothing but
a number of full screen vertical black lines after
two beeps. In viewing the threads here, I'm not
very enthusiastic about Philips "warranty" service.

Has anybody experienced anything like this?

Yes. Two things to try:

1) Remove the batteries for at least OVERNIGHT.
2) Try updating the firmware from the PC again.

I'm not sure if this is what they mean, but I received this note a while back:

RC5000 Looks like it has a "brick waterfall":
· Use "Tools", to "Update RC5000."
· Press "reset" button on the back of the RC5000
· Press "Skip." From the RC5000 edit software.
· It might be necessary to press the "reset" button on the remote more than once.

Daniel,

Thanks for the info, but neither solution worked.
Guess it's time to send it in for repair.

Thanks again.

Hmm, two beeps means the remote is operating normally and has completed rebooting. So, it's not a firmware problem -- but rather something between the circuit board and the display.

I had exactly the same thing on my original prototype remote. Over the period of a month it would start giving black garbage screens more and more often until it wouldn't stop. My usual solution was to pull the battery many times and watch it reboot (this was before ProntoEdit). Eventually the problem would be corrected. However, it got to the point where it wouldn't do anything. Philips was interested, so I sent it back.

By the time FedEx finished with it, it was again working perfectly. Doh! My replacement has never had the problem. So, try this. Try gently shaking or tapping the remote. I don't mean bang it hard -- be gentle. If nothing works, return it to your dealer or Philips.

Yeah, I thought it might be a bad connection so I gently tapped it, as you suggested, but there was absolutely no change in the vertical lines (i.e. didn't jitter or waver).

The pattern of the lines changes when I pull the batteries and replace them, but they never seem to jitter, so it seems as though it's not an intermittent connection causing the problem.

It's pretty apparent that I'm going to have to send it in for repair. I'll probably try to reload the firmware a couple of times this evening (just because
I'm stubborn) and see if anything different occurs...
or I could just let my FedEx guy have a go at it!

Thanks for your help... it's appreciated!