PROBLEMS FIXED!!!

Sometimes what seems complicated is actually very simple. We had an
electrician check the oven circuit yesterday and in very short order he
found a faulty grounding problem inside the service panel. A simple
fix and both the problems I described went away --- opening the mw door
during the cooking cylcle completely shuts down the unit, and closing
the door and pressing "start" again resumes the program where it left
off. The other problem is also gone -- removing food at the end of the
cycle resets the display simply by closing the door.

Although I have been very happy with Sears service in most ways, it
seems to me this whole saga might have been avoided had they checked
the ground at the junction box where the oven is wired into the circuit
as one of the *first* trouble shooting steps. They would have
discovered that the ground was faulty, and had me hire an electrician
to fix that problem at my own expense. Of course, it was easy to
assume the circuit must be ok since a previous wall oven combo had been
working just fine for 12 years......

Anyway, thanks to all of you who gave me advice. I hope my experience
can help you in the future.

Richard