Octopo:Thankyou Mr Hughes, I would never have thought of such a thing as checking....the....batteries!! The IR detector though, could well be though I would have thought the remote is more likely to have suffered damage / wear and tear / a battering?
Lol, most things that I find broken are down to batteries of some sort!
As for damage to remotes, I once came into the house and found my A32's remote in my dog's mouth. We both stayed silent and didn't move; our eyes fixed on each other. Then, I very slowly picked up the CD player remote and clicked play on a CD with the volume at practically full - the dog had such a fright that she immediately dropped the remote! Phew!