Re: HP 49G+ Button Fix? Message #15 Posted by Stephen Easterling on 29 Sept 2005, 12:44 p.m., in response to message #1 by Shaun
Yesterday I received my second 49G+.
The first one I bought about six weeks ago from HPShopping which had ROM 1.23 and was prone to mis-entries with the keyboard. I would feel the click, hear the click, but not get the entry on the display. I could dance all day on the keyboard with my fingers (just like on any USA / Singapore model) and still not record the entry. I was always looking at the screen to see if the number was displayed (sometimes not), and it was just miserable to use. It was fun to play around with, was fast, overall cool to own, but downright miserable to actually use. Not being a rookie to HP, I hated this! Test yourself: cover the screen, type in 1-9 (enter), 1-9 (enter). After doing this seven times, look at the stack and see how many times you didn't record all the numbers and you'll be amazed. Of course, if you're aware of what you're doing, you hit the keys harder and not have mistakes. But if you do it like you're not aware and you let the feel of the key and the sound of the click be your judge, then you'll see the difference. I hocked this 2-month-old 49G+ to a doctor that enjoys it a toy.
Okay, so now I really want a 49G+ and I want it to work properly. I call up HPShopping and they said that they have the very latest issue of these versions. The man I spoke to was very much aware of the problems I outline above, and assured that HP segregated all of the defective lots, and that if I purchased a new one from him (about five days ago), that it would have no more keypad problems AND have the ROM version 2.00. Yesterday I was excited to receive my new 49G+, but depressed to have the same keypad problems. When I checked the ROM it was still 1.23. I called back today and the lady was surprised the other guy could ensure I would receive ROM 2.00 and have no keypad problems. She said the best HP could do would be to just keep exchanging them for a model that didn't have problems. She had no way of knowing if their distributer could segregate older lots and newer lots, and didn't seem to care about the problem.
My question: What should I do? Should I believe HP when they the current product has been debugged / updated and take my chances, or just forget about the 49G+ and use my 48GX for everything? My serial number is CNA 52302843. I will go ahead and download the ROM 2.00, but according to many out there, this does not correct the keypad problem (although a few report some improvement).
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