Nick, thanks for your reply. I do have another Arduino ( Uno, rev 3). I reviewed the sketch you specified in your reply. To other readers... Nick's reply is more then just a sketch, it's a tutorial on how to burn a new bootloader using a second arduino.
Question: before doing this, is there any harm in testing the sketch you listed on page 1 with my existing bootloader? If my bootloader (by chance) were correct, I would get the results listed on page 2 ,your Reply #22 . If not, what will occur? It won't brick my Mega will it? What happened when you ran with the "bad" bootloader, Reply #20?
I'm asking because of FernandoGarcia 's reply #25 "I uploaded these examples in my arduino mega 2560 and was a fight to get remove them." as well as RetroLefty's post #29 example code comment: "Note that current arduino mega boards will fail this test and brick". Yikes!
To restate my environment: Mega2560, Arduino IDE 1.0.4
thanks
Rich