4400/200: (1) update, (2) "RESETing to change Configuration!"?

I've been mentioning a 4400/200 here recently.

(1) Power-on update.

I set up a small circuit driven off standby +5V with a diode, two
resistors, and a capacitor to provide "battery" power.  This sort-of
works.

I plug it in and it works fine.  But, if I unplug power, I have to
either plug it back in fairly soon or wait a long time.  If I don't -
if I want longer than the short time (seconds?) but not as long as the
long time (hours), then something gets stuck and it refuses to power
up.  Any ideas for what I might be able to do about that?  (Well,
besides "replace the silly thing with a three-dry-cell battery holder",
which I want to do as soon as I find one?)

(2)

There's another symptom, though, which has shown up recently.

Sometimes - usually in response to a reset-all or boot command - it
will print

RESETing to change Configuration!

give a startup chime (a second one, if in response to a reset-all), and
drop into its flashing-question-mark mode.  (A few times, I've managed
to press cmd-opt-O-F in time and get directly into OF, but usually I've
had to power-cycle to do that.)

When it does this, it not only does the flashing question mark thing,
it also resets real-base to -1.  It does not reset load-base.

Any idea what's behind this, what I can do about it, etc?

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