Duly noted.
Looking at the 'gas gauge' (the battery monitor chip) in the diags, this battery show a cycle count of 484. So it's been through a pretty good number of cycles that an always on unit wouldn't expect to have. On the other hand, a display model is going to see some pretty rough service what with John Q Public trying to break it every day.
It's almost funny though, that using option 4 to erase the MMC (twice) does nothing. The unit still boots and acts just like nothing ever happened. Which is true I guess
So I can't even brick this thing if I try.
At least I have some good pare parts- the batteries still take a FULL charge and the screens are good. Not to mention I learned a good bit along the way. Thanks for chiming in.