[justdiy]

Hi,
This is an issue related to 8 year old GE Spacemaker XL1800 microwave. Never had any issue until yesterday when my wife tried to use it after cleaning it (has done that many times earlier). Note sure what happened, the control panel stopped responding. Especially, the Clear/Stop and Start buttons. We were able to select the numbered buttons and the microwave would run fine for that entire time...but cant clear or stop in between. The only way is to open the microwave which automatically stops it...but the thing is...the time left will not clear until you press Clear button which doesnt respond. So I tried pulling the power plug and putting it back. This cleared the time that I had earlier but same thing repeated. Was able to select only numbered buttons and run it completely. I read some forums online and found that if water gets into the vent this might happen. So, took out the vents at the bottom and left it all night. This morning when we tried again...since it was turned off for so long...the microwave now wants us to set the time which we cant do as none of the buttons were responding. Now the microwave has completely become non-functional.

Any suggestions will be highly appreciated. One of my friend suggested that I remove the control panel...pull the ribbon cable, clean it and put it back in. Thats one option I have...but still wanted to check if anyone has seen this with their microwave. Thanks.