Hello all,
I'm at a loss what is wrong with my refrigerator, so I thought I'd pose this to the experts.

I have a GE refrig manufactured in 2003. Overall, the refrigerator works quite well. However, about six months ago I came home one day to melting ice cream in the freezer and a warm refrigerator. I opened the freezer door for five minutes, but the evaporator fan didn't kick on. Finally, I unplugged the refrigerator and replugged it back in - 5 mins after that, the evaporator fan finally started working.

This happens about once per week like clockwork. The evaporator fan will not "kick on" for some reason and things will melt. Replugging the fridge back in does the trick. Lately, it's been happening more than once per week - like once per three days.

I think it's an issue with the refrig not transitioning correctly from the defrost cycle to the cooling cycle, so I spent about five hours this weekend with it and discovered the following:

1) There isn't excessive frost buildup on the coils. There is slightly more frost on the bottom half of the coil structure than the top - not a huge difference though.

2) The defrost heater works properly (checked with an ohmeter)

3) The evaporator thermistor works properly (checked with an ohmeter)

4) I checked the evaporator fan voltages at the main board - all check out okay. Also, the compressor seems to work fine - cold air does blow once the refrig enters the "cooling" cycle.

So I'm thinking it's either the defrost thermostat (impossible to test without cutting wires) or the main board. Thoughts????

Any help/insight is GREATLY appreciated. Thank you in advance!