Bad emitter?

Anyone ever have an emitter just go bad out of nowhere? I've had them bad out of the box before, but not a month after install.

Got a guy with a simple IR repeater in a pool room (pool meaning swimming pool, not pool table, not that it has any bearing on this in any way...) where the equipment is in the mechanical room. Everything works except the receiver. He can control it from the universal remote we installed. (LOL it's called the Dolphin... waterproof learning remote........) He can walk back and control everything standing in front of it and can control the DirecTV box perfectly from the other room. Emitter is still stuck on firmly, sounds like it's still in the right spot and wasn't moved, no wires are loose or disconnected from the connecting block. So I have to drive an hour to swap a friggin' IR emitter.

...and I've got $5 that says it's from SnapAV... :)