After a power "Blink", followed a couple seconds later by a power failure, it seems as if my 18F4620 PORT.B1 and B2 is fried.

I had it in a LAB-X1, which was powered by a small "wall wart", which was pluged into a surge protector (same one my computer runs off). I have modified the LAB-X1 to accomadate jumpers to change around the configuration of the board to accomadate different chips/projects. At the time, I was running the 4 data lines for a VFD (operates like a std LCD) off of B0-B4.

I have verified the all of the other hardware works by running a 16F877A and 18F4550 without any problems. I've also tried various other tasks with the bum 18F4620 (flashing LEDs, detecting button press) with no positive results. Beside those two lost pins, I seems to work OK (timers, I2C, USART).

I guess I am in a mild state of disbelief. I had the impression these little things were fairly robust.
Is there anything I can do in the future to better protect the PIC?

Regards,
Steve