HP Forum Archive 10

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HP 17B II Message #1 Posted by Henry Kolesnik on 20 Feb 2003, 12:19 p.m. After laying idle for some time I finally installed new batteries and nothing happens. I can find the manual and I recall that there's a key sequence to reset it. Any tips appreciated. tnx hank wd5jfr

Re: HP 17B II Message #2 Posted by W. Bruce Maguire II on 20 Feb 2003, 12:47 p.m., in response to message #1 by Henry Kolesnik Henry: Do a machine reset (does *not* erase memory): Hold down CLR and press the third menu key (from the left). The manual says "repeat if necessary". That should do it. If you ever want/need to do a *complete* machine reset *and clear* (which *erases* the continuous memory), then this is done by pressing three keys simultaneously: CLR and the first and last menu keys. Hope that does it! Bruce.

Re: HP 17B II Message #3 Posted by Henry Kolesnik on 20 Feb 2003, 1:32 p.m., in response to message #2 by W. Bruce Maguire II Nope, it didn't work. Are there any other sequences or tests to do to find out if it's trash or not? I'll even open it, what have I to lose? tnx hank wd5jfr

Re: HP 17B II Message #4 Posted by Christoph Giesselink on 20 Feb 2003, 5:48 p.m., in response to message #1 by Henry Kolesnik Hello I had newly a similar problem with a HP32SII. I removed the batteries and pressed the ON key to be sure that the calculator is complete powerless to examine the reset state at power up. After I reinserted the batteries nothing happened any more. I wasn't able to power up the calculator. After some tries, finally I removed one battery and reinserted it, _while_ I held down the <ON> key. And how wonderful, after releasing the <ON> key, the calculator worked again. Christoph

Re: HP 17B II Message #5 Posted by Henry Kolesnik on 20 Feb 2003, 5:55 p.m., in response to message #4 by Christoph Giesselink I tried inserting the batteries while holding down the ON but no luck. More ideas? tnx hank wd5jfr

Re: HP 17B II Message #6 Posted by Spice_Man on 20 Feb 2003, 5:59 p.m., in response to message #5 by Henry Kolesnik Try shorting the battery terminals for a few seconds with the batteries out. Reinsert batteries and turn on. If that fails, try shorting the battery terminals again with the batteries out, insert batteries, then short the terminals again with the batteries in (you'll need a piece of wire for that), then turn on. If that fails, it may be dead... in which case, you might try torqueing the case length-wise slightly, to see if you can get the keyboard contacts to hook up (if that is the problem...). Do this only as a last resort. Spicey

Re: HP 17B II Message #7 Posted by Henry Kolesnik on 20 Feb 2003, 6:18 p.m., in response to message #6 by Spice_Man No luck shoring the terminals with batteries out and I was hesitant to short the terminals with batteries in because it didn't make sense so I got my voltmeter out and checked the batteries, and they were nearly dead. Luckily I had another set, tried them and it works. Once again I'm too trusting, I'm positive they were new but now I'm not so sure but I'm happy its working. Moral of the story, if new batteries don't solve the problem check and see if they're new by checking with a meter. I've had about 10 different HP calculaotrs, and many got abused over and over and I've never had one die on me yet. HP makes good calculators! tnx hank wd5jfr

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