Electronic Alarms and Home Security Devices - Ademco 4140 programming problem

My Ademco 4140 will no longer allow me to enter the programming mode using the installer code. I tried entering by powering up the system and pressing the * and # keys within 30 seconds but that doesn't work either because the system arms itself in "Instant" mode immediately on power up.

Has anyone else seen this problem? Is there a fix for it? Everything else on the system works fine but I need to change the master code and cannot do this without accessing the programming mode.

Aside from making sure you are remembering to disconnect the battery as well as AC power, the only thing I can think of is to have someone hold down the * + # keys while you restore power. I suspect that the last time programming was exited, it was done with *98 instead of *99.

I thought so as well but I found it strange that it keeps defaulting to the "armed" state after the power up. I can use the master code to then disarm it but by then it is too late to enter the */# configuration to enter the programming mode. I hope this system isn't toast. . . everything else works fine on it.

I want to say that this model may have had an option to power up in the armed state after a power loss. When it was new, this was a fairly high end model used in a lot of commercial installations.