HP Forum Archive 19

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Advice on buying a HP67 Message #1 Posted by Nigel Bamber on 30 Apr 2009, 3:41 p.m. I am interested in expanding my meagre collectionand have seen a HP 67 for sale with the following info : "I FOUND THIS CALCULATOR IN A BOX FROM A HOUSE CLEARANCE. I WAS INTERESTED ENOUGH TO PURCHASE A BATTERY FROM AMERICA TO SEE IF IT STILL WORKED. WHILE WAITING FOR MY BATTERY I DID SOME RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET TO FIND THAT THESE ARE STILL VERY MUCH LOVED BY PEOPLE TODAY. MY BATTERY ARRIVED WHICH I FITTED TO THE CALCULATOR & SWITCHED THE ON BUTTON. (1) IT STARTED WHIRING & PUSHED OUT THE MAGNETIC CARD THAT WAS STILL INSIDE THE MACHINE. (2) THE RED L.E.D DISPLAY (For lack of better words) WENT CRAZY! (3) THE CARD FINISHED BEING PUSHED OUT & THE L.E.D DISPLAY SPELLED OUT THE WORD (Error) (4) THE L.E.D THEN DISPLAYED A MINUS FOLLOWED BY MULTIPLE ZEROS (See picture) (5) AT THIS POINT I WAS READY TO DO SUMS BUT COULD GET IT TO DO NO MORE THAN CHANGE THE ZEROS TO NINES BY PRESSING TWO BUTTONS AT ONCE (See picture) (6) I TRIED TO REINSERT THE MAGNETIC CARD BUT THE MOTOR DID NOT RUN AGAIN. THE BATTERY PACK HAS NOW RUN OUT OF POWER & I DO NOT HAVE A CHARGER SO BEING SOLD AS SEEN & AS DESCRIBED FOR REPAIR." In answer to a question the seller said " Hi, This calculator is in excellent condition with no wear to the silver lining or keys & no scratches on the outer case. The battery compartment has no corrosion as when i got the calculator there was no battery pack inside. The overall condition is near mint as it has probably been in the protective soft case unused for many years. I hope this helps your decision" My questions are (if you don't mind) : 1. What sort of money is it worth bidding for a working HP67 2. Do the error messages etc. seem to be resolveable ? 3. Do you think the card reader might work? 4. Is it easy to get batteries to use in an HP67 or alernatively a charger to power up these batteries ? Many thanks for your help. Nigel

Re: Advice on buying a HP67 Message #2 Posted by Maximilian Hohmann on 30 Apr 2009, 4:19 p.m., in response to message #1 by Nigel Bamber Hello! Quote: My questions are (if you don't mind) : 1. What sort of money is it worth bidding for a working HP67 2. Do the error messages etc. seem to be resolveable ? 3. Do you think the card reader might work? 4. Is it easy to get batteries to use in an HP67 or alernatively a charger to power up these batteries ? 1. Impossible to answer, I'm afraid. Whatever it is worth to you. 100 Pounds/Euros for a working 67 would be my personal limit as there are plenty of these machines. I got mine for much less and it is in similar cosmetic shape as the one in your auction. But it works. 2. Impossible to answer, as the seller dosen't tell us, what exactly he did. Maybe he could have cleared the display by simply pressing "CLX"? If he really only got these zeros whatever keys he pressed, then there is not much hope. No spare parts to be found anywhere... 3. It was able to eject the card, which is a good sign. The motor is working and the "gummy wheel" seems to have some grip left. But it's not so good that the motor dosen't run, when a card is inserted. Wether this is due to the general "all zeros"-condition of the calculator or to a faulty card sensor switch (very difficult to repair, I'm told) - who knows. 4. It is very easy to get newly made rechargeable battery packs from the States (as this seller describes). Not even expensive. A puristic collector will probably not like them, but they work better than the originals, because modern battery cells have more than double capacity of the originals. Chargers are also easy and quite cheap to find, because many classic HP calculators use the same charger (HP-35 HP-80 HP-70 HP-45 HP-55 HP-65 chargers all work). Greetings, Max NB: I personally would not pay more than 10 Euros for this calculator (e.g. for replacing the worn case of a working calculator)! Edited: 30 Apr 2009, 4:21 p.m.

Re: Advice on buying a HP67 Message #3 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 30 Apr 2009, 6:15 p.m., in response to message #1 by Nigel Bamber Nigel, 1) The card reader on an HP-65/67 needs to run off a charged battery; it should not/cannot be run properly from a charger without a battery installed. If the seller bought a fresh battery, he should have charged it prior to use. It looks like he did not because he lacked an AC adapter/charger. If the battery charge is low, all kinds of funny malfunctions can occur, such as the motor not running, keys not registering, error messages etc. 2) If the calculator has never been opened, then the card reader feed (gummy) wheel and probably the clutch (motor to worm gear torque limiting slip coupling) have deteriorated badly, and need to be re-built. So, odds are that it is fixable, however, there are no guarantees. It's a very good sign that there is no visible corrosion. If it were me, I might gamble up to $100 USD, but certainly not any more.

Re: Advice on buying a HP67 Message #4 Posted by Nigel Bamber on 1 May 2009, 3:26 p.m., in response to message #3 by Michael de Estrada Thanks for the advice. Its already at £75 so it seems best to leave it alone. Having been tracking Ebay for a little while now , it seems that because of a greater level of supplies in the US , the prices there are generally lower. Nigel

Re: Advice on buying a HP67 Message #5 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 1 May 2009, 3:37 p.m., in response to message #4 by Nigel Bamber Quote: Having been tracking Ebay for a little while now , it seems that because of a greater level of supplies in the US , the prices there are generally lower. It depends. If the auction is worldwide such as the following example, prices are comparable. USA worldwide auction

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