Issues - sluggish NUC6CAYH and IR issues

The latest on my issue is that Intel suggested I return my NUC8i7BEH for a replacement, which I did and the problem persists. If I go much beyond 6 feet the internal IR remote pretty much stops working or is very sluggish when it does work. I've gone ahead and disabled the internal IR receiver and installed a FLIRC gen1 USB IR receiver. It is working fine. Intel seems like they might actually be digging into this issue based upon their E-mail response. I am cautiously optimistic but somewhat doubtful. It looks like a HW design issue.

For those interested, here's the thread with Intel. It is getting more interesting. I've got my gen 1 Flirc working pretty good now. I had some issues with button delays but changing the delay times on my Harmony remote and some additional Flirc programming has fixed everything. It is pretty responsive now.