If your R149DP receiver was 3 to 4 years old there is some chance that it could have developed a problem.

I had two in that age range fail completely. One exhibited similar behavior that you are describing. Futaba service center could not duplicate the mode of failure and returned them un repaired. I trashed them and went on.

The new one should be as reliable as anything out there but I do understand about being uneasy after experiencing that kind of failure. I reverted back to the older and no longer available R129DP and have yet to decide what to do when these start to fail. Maybe the 2.4 gig will be working for the big stuff by then.