Have a broken heater:
http://www.laskoproducts.com/heaters/model_5365.html

The symtom is when turned on, the LCD displays some random junk for a second
and then go dim. Pressing any button also triggers displaying some random
junk.

The mechanical portion of the heater works fine. I can "hot wire" the heater
to work bypassing the controller board, but I lose the remote control
feature and temperature regulation this way.

There are many easily replaceble components (transistors, resistors,
capacitors, ..) on the controller board. There is also a chip (probably a
custom controller) and an LCD display. If the chip is fried, there is
probably no way to get a replacement. Is there any way to determine whether
the problem is the chip, or any one of the discreet components on the board?

BTW, is there any software to help create a schematic diagram from photos of
the circuit board?