Aloha Everyone.

I am completely new to Outlaw Audio and the 990 I found at a thrift shop here on Kauai. The price was $25. They thought it worked fine, and knowing it was an expensive pre-amp, I didn't want to do anything besides pay and leave. (for reasons unknown, this particular thrift shop has the occasional rare high-end audio components for dirt cheap: I bought an Onkyo power amp for $5 and Klipsch speakers for $10/pr.)

It didn't come with its remote, manual, mic or power cord. I went back the next day and combed every bin for the remote or mic, but with no luck.

So...does it work? Well, not really.

It's done two different things: the power LED either switches from amber to blue with no display and none of the front panel buttons appear to work -

... or...twice it did something else - the display DID come on and the mute, surround mode, and several other front panel buttons worked, but after those 2 times, the display no longer comes on (which is odd for an electronic device, usually it either works or not). If I leave the blue light on, with no display, it does not switch back to amber...it stays blue for an hour or as long as I've tried it.

I did call Outlaw (Jim) and he was very helpful..mentioned that I needed to plug the 990 into a video monitor to see the menu and told me how to do a reset by pressing menu and center select button while in amber mode. It did seem to reset; turned blue for a sec, then back to amber...but no display.

Also, I plugged the video component output (a yellow RCA) into my TV's video component in but saw nothing, so not sure if that means it's not working or what.

Since I got this so cheaply, I don't want to bother the guys at Outlaw any more than I have to (though I guess once it's sold second hand, it shouldn't really matter...but still...).

I did find the manual online and have looked it over, but it's pretty detailed reading. I ordered up a new remote as well. It should be here in a few days. The power cord is the 3 prong IEC kind since I could not find a 'plain' 2-prong as of yet..I read a thread here saying that wasn't a big deal.

So any ideas on getting this amazing pre-amp working? I can easily imagine that I fundamentally am missing something...so please feel free to ask me questions.
At the moment, if the remote doesn't fix this, I'll be a bit stuck. Mailing this back to MA would cost over $100 each way in shipping alone, so sending it off is not something I want to do until there's no other options.
Thanks for any suggestions...