Thanks Bill.

I use EQASCOM with the bluetooth BT2EQ6 interface from Shoestring. I thought the BT2EQ6 may have failed so I reverted to the original Synscan paddle. However it too was behaving erratically. In fact, I couldn't get past the warning statement. Every time I pressed ESQ to exit the statement, the paddle would go back to restarting..
I'm thinking the motherboard may have failed. I have a spare which I installed yesterday before the rain started. Once skies clear again I'll see if this fixes the situation.

thanks again
david