On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 3:26:12 PM UTC-5, newbee wrote:
Fan is 4 to 5 years old. It probably has been having this problem for a while till I decided enough is enough this summer.... I removed the remote and connected directly to the wiring to see if that was the issue. Then I even connected the speed switch wires to the hot wire directly one at a time (grey 1, brown 2, purple 3),.... same behavior. I get Low, Medium, Low..... instead of High, Medium, Low. Any other thoughts (other than go buy a new ceiling fan )... Could it be the capacitor... Thanks

OK, you have bypassed the switch, so you probably can rule that out. Do you have an volt/ohmmeter, if so on the ohms scale you can test the capacitor? First disconnect the 120V supply, then rove the wire from one end of the capacitor. Then short the two capacitor terminals together for about 10 seconds, to discharge the capactior. Now, with the ohmmeter set on the highest resistance scale, connect one lead to one of the capacitor leads and then touch the other ohmmeter lead to the other capacitor lead. The ohmmeter should show a momentary low resistance, going to a high resistance as the ohmmeter charges up the capacitor.

It might be nice to tell us make and model of the fan, someone may know of a family history of similar problems.