HP Forum Archive 13

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HP45 self-tests? Message #1 Posted by barry on 8 Sept 2003, 4:06 p.m. any self-tests for the HP45? tnx! barry carson city, nv

Re: HP45 self-tests? Message #2 Posted by Bill Wiese on 8 Sept 2003, 4:19 p.m., in response to message #1 by barry Hi Barry IIRC, I don't think any of the Classic or Woodstock calcs had self-test code - ROM space was just too precious. Bill San Jose CA

Re: HP45 self-tests? Message #3 Posted by barry on 8 Sept 2003, 4:49 p.m., in response to message #2 by Bill Wiese would you or others please recommend a good procedure for checking the unit out before putting it up for auction/sale? in beginner parlance, of course! it just had the cadmium pack rebuilt by Batteries Plus, unit powers up nicely, etc, but i would like to be able to state in the ad that i feel reasonably safe that the item performs as stock. no manual on hand! tnx in advance, barry PS: i know, i'm going to have to breakdown and purchase the CD!

Re: HP45 self-tests? Message #4 Posted by Bill Wiese on 8 Sept 2003, 8:14 p.m., in response to message #3 by barry Hi Barry... I commend you on your trying to be a good-faith seller and caring about what your purchaser buys. See that entering 8.888888888 [CHS][EEX] 88 [CHS] results in a display of "-8.888888 -88" (oops, might have gotten one too many '8' digits in the mantissa). See that every key "does something". See that you can store and recall numbers into the memories. See that changing one memory doesn't wipe out another's contents. On a calc like an HP45 if a few calcs work and the keys work and the display lights OK then you're pretty well off. If anything failed in the ROM or ACT chip the whole calc would've gone haywire. (Not necessarily true of higher-end later programmable calcs.) Get another sci calc (even cheapie non-HP is OK). Run them back to back for several calculations on log & trig functions. They won't be exactly the same (HP's prob better!) A good test: [9][sin][cos][tan][f][arctan][f][arccos][f][arcsin] should end up with a number close to 9: 9.004076644 is what the Calculator Forensics project at http://www.calcinfo.com says the HP45 produces. Bill Wiese San Jose CA

Re: HP45 self-tests? Message #5 Posted by Ernie Malaga on 8 Sept 2003, 10:20 p.m., in response to message #4 by Bill Wiese When performing these tests on the HP-45 and HP-65, remember that the contents of R9 is corrupted by the execution of certain operations. Don't be concerned if RCL 9 gives you garbage you didn't put there; that's "normal" on these two machines. The operations that corrupt R9 are all trigonometrics (including polar/rectangular conversion) and, in the case of the HP-65, the logical tests (such as x=y?, etc.). -Ernie

Re: HP45 self-tests? Message #6 Posted by David Smith on 9 Sept 2003, 4:06 p.m., in response to message #1 by barry A really quick and dirty test of HP machine internals is to press E+ (the summation key) twice. You should see "2" in the display. This exercises a lot of the CPU and the memory chip. Recommended for all HP25 machines in particular... way to many of them will say "1" because the RAM chip is toast. And test the display by entering -8.888888888E-88.

is the display test good for all? Message #7 Posted by barry on 9 Sept 2003, 10:48 p.m., in response to message #6 by David Smith i'm guessing this is true for all displays as it lites up all segments?

Re: is the display test good for all? Message #8 Posted by David Smith on 10 Sept 2003, 5:42 p.m., in response to message #7 by barry Yes, the idea is to light up all possible segments. It is also a good idea to punch in all all 10 possible digit displays and a 1-9 display. You could have a shorted display segment that would not show up with all 888888888. I had a machine that showed the "1" digit weird.

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