Re: Dead HP-27S Message #4 Posted by J. Lopez on 30 Mar 2001, 9:47 a.m., in response to message #3 by Paul Brogger
Hi:
Yes, I checked the battery contacts. As a matter of fact, the calculator does turn on when new batteries are installed, but some keys (mostly those on the right two columns) don't do anything when pressed.
I've been reading in the museum some old documents describing similar problems with other HP calculators, and found that, as some knowledgeable people here suggest, twisting the calculator somehow makes the keys work. I've been able to bring up the TIME menu (the TIME menu key is in the right-most column of the keyboard) and have even entered the current date and time (nice feature in a Pioneer-type calc. I can't stop drooling just thinking about this feature in my HP-42S). The calculator has kept the time correctly for about 12 hours now.
The calculator looks fine and, if I manage to have it take my keystrokes, it returns correct, logical results.
I've tried leaving it without batteries for a few hours and, amazingly, after I put the batteries again, I still had the contents of register 1 unchanged, but some keys are still not working. The manual suggests using a coin to short-circuit the battery contacts for a few seconds. No use there either.
Oh, I've tried two different sets of new batteries (in the shop where I bought it, they put in a brand new set as I was there, to show me it worked --which it didn't and, thus, I was able to buy it for a pittance).
Anyway, I must say I'm encouraged by having the calculator come on and perform some calculations correctly. The only problems I see now are the keyboard and the screen contrast, which is too dim (this might not be a different problem itself, as I haven't been able to make the key combination [CLR] + [+] work, being that the [+] key is not working.
Sorry for the long post, guys. I sincerely appreciate all the help. It's a pity to have such a nice piece of calculator not working. I think I might even learn to like this non-RPN machine... it's just too bad it's not programmable.
Thanks.
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