More on "R7000P router will not reset

Hey guys, I've tried it all, at least all that I know.  The title says it all

First of all, the router works fine, I think.  It connects to the Internet.  When I connect via LAN to my laptop- no problems.  Good Internet, good speed.

The Wifi signals are there, but I forgot the passwords so I can't test them.

Sooo,,, I power on, let it boot up, hold down the reset button until the cows some home, no response, nada.

Soo...  I power off, hold down the reset button, and power on.  This time the router doesn't boot, it just cycles through some lights.  I release the button after a ridiculous amount of time, then it boots back to the usual working state where it was before.  This tells me that the reset button is probably functional, I mean it does do something.

30-30-30 reset- no joy.

I tried the TFTP procedure at various times during what passes for the boot up cycle (and yes, I've done this successfully on other Netgear routers so I know what I'm doing...)- but- at no time does the power light flash (so I assume I'm never in Recovery mode), and TFTP times out - "failed to connect"

The bare board is now out of the case- I tried ohming out the Reset button but did not get any response, i.e. no change in continuity between the pins.  If the reset switch did nothing, I would suspect it was defective, but it does no "something" per the 5th paragraph.  I was hoping tind something on the board, like a pin header (yes, there is one, labelled J251 with 4 pins and not otherwise labelled) with some functional label.

Interesting conundrum.  Any ideas.