Sorry for the delay....
Having a load attached or not has no impact on the problem - the light just doesn't come on and it has no power sometimes.
The unit has had a pretty easy life. I really only use it once a year during my annual dry camping trip. I usually fire it up a couple times between trips just to be sure it's still running and always run stabilizer through it.
We just had a terrible ice storm and lost power for 6 days. My in-laws are far worse off than me with no power (totally electric house - I have gas hot water, stove and fireplace) so I loaned the generator to them and they had no problem turning it on/off dozens of times and running it for hours on end. When I get it back I'll play with it some more. Kind of disappointing at only 5 years to be having this trouble.