HP Forum Archive 13

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Funky Spice Display Message #1 Posted by DougT on 17 June 2003, 8:51 p.m. Hi folks, The display of my 38E is acting up. At every digit location, the upper left LED segment does not work. Since it's at every digit, I doubt it's simultaneously burned out LEDs. Perhaps something's amiss with the display driver? This is an older unit that may have the "press-fit" chips. I thought I'd see if the resident experts had run into this condition before, prior to cracking it open (with the dental floss trick). I've done plenty of transplant surgery on my Woodstocks, but this will be my first time digging into a Spice model. Thanks! Doug

Re: Funky Spice Display Message #2 Posted by David Smith on 18 June 2003, 5:41 p.m., in response to message #1 by DougT This is a very common type of problem with the pressed together spice machines. I have found the problem is slightly more likely to be a bad connection on the 40 pin chip than the LED module. Occasionally the problem could be a fault in the LED module itself... only repairable by replacement from a scraped machine. Before opening up the keyboard sandwich make a note of the positions of each chip. The little 8 pin ones are easy to get swapped. Also be careful of the battery connector flat cable. The etches in the cable are rather fragile and don't like to be handled much. After opening up the keyboard sandwich clean the keyboard circuits with 91% isopropyl alcohol.

Re: Funky Spice Display Message #3 Posted by DougT on 18 June 2003, 6:35 p.m., in response to message #2 by David Smith Thanks, David! Your advice and everyone else's will be very helpful on my first adventure inside a Spice unit.

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