has to read one of those values, you arent laying the leads against the metal part of the key?

Just found a 20k ohms resister and tested it: zero ohms! Micronta busted! Well, its about 15 years old. Off to the store.

you check the fuses in the meter, sometimes its just blown

thanks Justin, that'* exactly what it was! I think we may have found the problem; both keys have same resistance but the new key is flat across the top instead of having a slight bump as the original key has. The new key looked tarnished and under a magnifying glass I could see some very small 'shiny' places. It looks as if it wasn't making good contact. My wife is using the original key so if the problem stops.....

let us know