Did you drop your remote and render it useless? You might have dropped it and you do not know if it is really useless or if the batteries are dead. There is one good way to determine if it is really bricked and should be disposed away.

Unlike the human eye, the signals sent by the remote can be observed by a phone camera. The IR rays which are beyond our visual spectrum are picked up by the phone cameras. If you have a doubt in your mind that your remote is not working, just pick up your phone and through its camera try pressing a few buttons on the remote. If the bulb like tranmitter glows in the camera, your remote is working properly.

This way you can also test if a few specific buttons are broken by checking which button is not emitting or emitting light.

(AW- Anil)