Telescope Reviews: Is my CGE toast?

Well, over the years there have been hundreds of threads and countless posts about CGE problems. I think I have read most of them but after three years on a used CGE I'm having some problems.

I started having some problems getting an alignment success last week. First I checked my power supply and find that I have 12 volts in a good supply. Seems to be a good tight fit at the electronics pier as well.

The cables I have used for three years are not "flat Marty cables" but have worked flawlessly for three years. I ordered new Marty cables and received them yesterday.

Last night I went out and set up with the new cables. When doing a two star alignment the scope slewed to Arcturus almost perfectly, then Altair and asked the usual about calibration stars. I do not remember what the first calib star was but where the scope ended up pointing was no where near a bright star. It was a very dark part of the sky with no star to align on.

I decided to start over. Turned off the power and started over double checked location, time, daylight time etc. and everything was in order. I did a solar system alignment and picked Jupiter. The scope slewed to a location very close to Jupiter. I centered the planet and got "alignment success" So I got to observe Jupiter for a while. I asked it to slew to the moon and it started to slew but ended up no where near the moon.

Started over a third time. Turned off the power and turned it back on again and low and behold Polaris was still dead center at the starting position. (good eh)? Now Arcturus is too far West. First alignment star is now Vega. I pressed enter to slew to Vega and for a few seconds it slewed at high speed but slowed to a guiding speed shortly after starting the slew. Finally after several minutes it was near (very near) Vega. I centered the star and went on to the second star. Denub I believe? It is not important. What is important other than the slewing speed is that the first calibration star was not even in the same hemisphere. WAY off.

Same or similar problems over and over for hours.

So, long story short what I see is.

Motors are working.
Encoders seem to be functional but maybe that is what slowed the slew?
Cables are new and worked the same with the old ones.
Power supply seems more than adequate.
Tracking is right on like always.
Doesn't seem to be any exceptional backlash or any other mechanical problems.

The handset had some challenges when I bought it three years ago, crooked display and several burned out lights in number keys but has worked well for three years. It has been updated to the latest updates. 4.16? I'm going from memory here but it is the latest and most up to datest.

So, after reading all my typing what do you think? I have a friend with a Celestron SE. Should I try his handset on my mount or is that asking for more trouble for me and him?

Well let me know what you think and thank you in advance.