Thanks for the response!
Vdd is rock solid... no sag during reset.
The MP16 reset pin is an open drain with pullup, and the chip clamp the pin for 34 clock cycles after reset is initiated... per the data sheet.
Good call on the external reset circuit check. I'm an old analog guy, so I played a trick... instead of using an external switch to ground to trigger reset, I used a switched resistor to ground, of the same relative value as the pull-up (10K in this case). As the resistor is switched in, the voltage on the RESET pin starts to RC ramp down to Vdd/2. About 1 uS into the ramp, as it starts to approach Vdd/2, the chip resets, and clamps the voltage hard to ground. Makes for a pretty pic on the o'scope.
Tis pretty definitive, the external signal is triggering the reset, but the chip does indeed take over, and never releases the RESET line, until a power cycle (POR). It's like the clock is inhibited when reset via RESET pin.
Reading the SRS always yields $82 (POR), which makes sense, as this was indeed the last reset before the chip started running again.
Time to put in a new chip.. make sure it's not h/w.