My 2nd replacement arrived with firmware 1.08, woohoo! I am going to put this one on its own 75w supply. Perhaps the fuse going out on my 75w in September was not a red herring after all. We are getting more power failures in CA so more cold start powerups (everything is UPS but no generator at night). I need to find someone to reload my two "dead" pad8a units (anyone in Silicon Valley reading?). Thank you to everyone who offered advice.
PD