What do the flashing lights on my Whirlpool Quiet Partner ii indicate?

Hello,

The dishwasher was in my home when I purchased it 6 years ago and this is the first issue that I have had. It started acting up earlier this week and I am trying to figure out what part is flawed. I believe it's narrowed down to a thermal fuse or the control panel/buttons.

Here are more details:

Power to the washer is shut off. The fuse looks to be blackened on one side, yet I receive a continuity signal (though shaky) when testing it with my multi-meter. Does the fuse have to be disconnected to test it? Is any beeping good enough? I would think so.

At first I thought that the fuse couldn't be bad because the fact that lights do light on the control panel, but I later read that the fuse would not cut all power to the washer itself. How can I know for sure if the fuse is bad and that it's the culprit?

The control panel would only react to certain buttons being pushed and hardly perform the function that it was asked. The "normal" button does not make the machine run. Is a bad fuse preventing this? Or is the button itself bad? I believe the washer would do a rinse and drain before I started taking it apart.

By reading online, I tried to reset the dishwasher by alternating the pushing of the "sani rinse" and "heated dry" buttons. All the lights then lit up, but the one above "normal" was flickering. Is this trying to tell me something? Or is the control panel bad?

Thanks for any help.

E