Hiya Chessplayer 6464,
Sorry to everyone for digging up an old thread.
My Citrine, which I got this year, does seem to have a bug on SD levels in that it doesn't flag me for time out, and yeah I dragged it out just out of curiosity to your post. When my time was out, it went into a 99 hour countdown and there were no beeps to indicate the time over as the manual states. On the default setting however, I do get a flag
Hi Kagoshimachris
Don't be sorry. You are first user who confirm this bug. Novag was made new firmware (year 2009), what correct this problem. This firmware installation is pretty compilicated, but I did it. Installation procedure requires; You have to open Citrine, contact two pin (what located difficult place on motherboard) together and run the patch on laptop, what's is connected to Citrine. Before that, you have to install couple of software on your laptop.
I really hope the Novag made new models easier to patch. Patching should be work out, without open the machine. Pretty simple solution is make a switch bottom of machine, what you can turn if you have to install patch. I was post this wish also to Novag 2009. We will see on future if they make this improvement to new models.
Unfortunately Novag have now ceased trading..
That was sad news. After little web searching, I found little positive comment;
"The lastest news from Bryan Whitby in Summer 2009 was that Solar Wide intended to continue with its chess computer manufacture and to develop new models"
I really hope, this will be happend. I like very much real chess computers. They offer real chess playing experience with real board and pieces. It's feel nice after lot of 2D chess playing.
I am the Bryan Whitby you quote and unfortunately, Solar Wide Industries who bought Novag have now also stopped trading so it's virtually the end of dedicated chess computer manufacturing.
I've owned 3 Novag computers, starting with (actually my favorite) a Novag Sapphire... and this makes me sad. The Obsidian is a great machine too. 
What about Saitek (Mephisto), are they still manufacure chess computers? It's very sad if nobody build anymore dedicated chess computers.
I've owned several Novag chess computers. First was Novag Constallation and I was bye it about 1983 or 1984. Latest are Novag Citrine. Citrine looks very nice and playing against it is easy, because of magnetic sensor board. You can just make moves, you don't have to press starting or destination square.
After getting my Novag citrine to work with SCID vs PC and with Arena I decided to document everything it took. So here is the link. In case anyone has a Novag Citrine they want to connect to a computer. I wrote a step by step guide of what I went through to get mine going. https://www.chesstech.info/2019/02/novag-citrine-connecting-to-pc.html
I recently found drivers for Fritz. https://www.chesstech.info/2023/04/update-novag-citrine-drivers-fritz-and.html
I have a important question for you;
How you Novag Citrine chesscomputer act, when you playing SD-levels and you time is out. What Citrine do in this situation? Plese tell me also, what generation you Citrine are (if you know that) and when it's build or when you buy it.
I think, Citrine 3rd generation include bug with SD-level time out situation. I must to know, how you Citrine work in this situation.