David White writes:

Do others see this or know of a work-around for it? If you are not
having this that would be good to know as well and might provide
encouragement to keep trying.

I never had any problems like that with mine (used one for five years
or so). The only real problem I encountered was that the speedometer
would stop working when riding long enough in the rain (too much
capacitance or whatever between the terminals in the base, wiping them
somewhat clean and dry on the road was enough to do the trick), plus of
course the usual 200 bpm HR readings when near power lines or such.

One longshot could be that you are testing with a bad batch of
batteries, maybe you could try a different brand?