Odd issues with Brymen BM257s - fixed?

[cburgess129]

I bought a Brymen BM257s 2 years ago, largely based on comments on this forum and the fact that Dave based his meter on a similar Brymen model.

Right after the 1yr warranty expired, it started throwing a CAL error when switched to dc volts and was stuck in diode mode when switched to the top position.  Nothing I did could resolve the issue so I contacted the vendor TME Electronics (it was cheaper to purchase overseas even though I am in the US - go figure) and they accepted it for RMA, even though it was out of warranty - good customer service! 

I received it back in working order and it worked for another 6 months and then got stuck in the diode range again.  Whenever I turned it to the range that allows you to select capacitance/ohms/diode, it would not allow me to select anything other than diode.  Interestingly, the CAL error did not return. I put it aside for about 6 months because I didn't think TME would fix it again, being out of warranty for so long. 

This morning I was looking for solutions online and rediscovered the instructions for putting it into calibration mode.  Having nothing better to try and thinking this might work like a factory-reset I tried it.  Essentially, you hold the SELECT and HOLD buttons while powering it on.  Surprisingly it worked!  I exited CAL mode, power-cycled it and was able to access all of the functions.  I tested all of the functions and ranges against a Greenlee DM-210A (which is a rebadged Brymen) and it works perfectly.

Has anybody else run into problems like this with their Brymen meters?  I don't expect the issue is permanently fixed but it is nice to know there is a work-around if it crops up again.