Decimal Key is Loose
Message #1 Posted by Anthony (USA) on 28 Jan 2011, 1:28 a.m.
During a math competition back in high school I let a friend of mine borrow my HP 33s. Well, I don't really know what happened because I didn't pursue it, but the decimal key is loose. It's not falling off the calculator, it's still in there. But you know when you touch any key in an HP calculator it doesn't move around, well the decimal key is somehow loose inside, it moves around freely. I don't know the architecture of the keys of HP calculators, so I don't know how (and if) this could be fixed. This is the main reason why I stopped using my HP 33s several years ago, because it just got unpredictable when working with the key. This is the only HP scientific (of high standard) still being manufactured today that allows the entering of a fraction by simply pressing the decimal key twice in a row (I really dislike how they took that away from the HP 35s, now we have to type ". 2 . 3" instead of "2 . . 3" to enter the fraction 2/3). I really wish I have an HP 32sII for this regard (HP 32sII is the calculator that my school let us borrow when we go to math competitions, it's my first encounter with the wonders of RPN).
I unscrewed my HP 33s open but I couldn't get to the keys because the circuit/electronic board is in there really good because of several plastic columns melted to prevent the board from being taken out. I'm just wondering what I should do to fix my decimal key, that is, if it's salvageable.
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