Excuse my ignorance but would appreciate some pointers on this problem.

Is it possible to exert so much pressure on the lock and unlock buttons
that they are damaged?  Or is there a chance that the coded signal from
this one is corrupted?

Am not even sure if this fob has some small battery inside or if it has
some kind of piezo electric circuitry.  Losing the car manual hasn't
helped I guess, and I haven't looked in the Haynes book yet.

The other fob seems to work fairly well (if you are fairly close to the
car). I hope that I do not have to use that Top Gear trick of apparently
improving the signal strength (with the fob to the head and the mouth
open) - as I look ridiculous enough already.

Thanks for any suggestions.