HP Forum Archive 21

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HP 32sII with faulty keypad Message #1 Posted by aurelio on 19 Sept 2012, 3:36 p.m. Hi all! I got a 32sII from a teacher, friend of mine 'cause useless and not working...."keep in your collection" he said! I would like instead to give "her" back life.... It's the same problem I suppose I've read here through our forum archives, ...and the diagnosis matches! but I would like to know please two things: a) after I've opened (drilling the posts) and repaired how is better to close again the case? b) had somebody success in repairing it just "handling" and squeezing the calculator? ...I had no great luck withe the zebras in the 41 ones!! thank-you in advance and cheers from Italy Edited: 19 Sept 2012, 3:38 p.m.

Re: HP 32sII with faulty keypad Message #2 Posted by Marcel Samek on 19 Sept 2012, 4:07 p.m., in response to message #1 by aurelio I have two 32sII calculators and they have both had this problem. One of them still does. When the first one first started exhibiting the problem, I found that I was able to get it to work by "handling" the body - twisting and bending the entire calculator a bit. That would make it work for a few days at most. Eventually I did take it apart (as described in the post). I found that a little bit of pressure on the circuit board would fix the problem. I never did remove the circuit board but instead I placed a makeup remover sponge (something like ) This ) over the board and put the cover back on. The sponge was about 5mm thick and a very dense highly compressible foam. It provided just enough even pressure on the circuit board to keep the calculator working. It has been more than a year now and it still works fine. I just popped the calculator closed. Even though the posts had been drilled/snapped, there is still enough friction that it holds shut by itself. I originally intended to use it for a couple of months, see if it still worked and then glue the posts. However, it has never opened by itself, even with the extra resistance of the sponge I inserted, and so I see no reason to glue it. The approach above did not work with my second calculator. Neither did the twisting and bending. So, I took the whole thing apart as described in the post. I was not however able to get the polyetheline tape specified (because of environmental laws it is not available in California and the companies I tried to order it from will not ship it here). I tried several substitutes but did not have good luck. The calculator is still in several pieces scattered on my desk.

Re: HP 32sII with faulty keypad Message #3 Posted by Jeff Johnson on 19 Sept 2012, 9:45 p.m., in response to message #1 by aurelio Like Marcel, my 32sII didn't need to be glued/fused back together at all after the repair. I just pressed the case halves back together and it has held fine for the last couple of years. Hope it goes well for ya.

Re: HP 32sII with faulty keypad Message #4 Posted by aurelio on 20 Sept 2012, 3:31 a.m., in response to message #3 by Jeff Johnson I opened the case, but actually did not succed to open it entirely, I got resistance in the bottom, so that I stopped the operation trying to understand the reason of this problem... Actually also in the upper side, after the drilling job I succeded to open the two pieces not easily...I used a knife to detach the two surfaces and there are now even traces of this "intrusion" in the plastic soft body! This evening I'll try to fix it without to completely open..I mean introducing aniway the plastic foam tokeep the PCB pressed on the the keyboard... what do you think about, is it normal? Edited: 20 Sept 2012, 7:17 a.m.

Re: HP 32sII with faulty keypad Message #5 Posted by Marcel Samek on 20 Sept 2012, 10:58 a.m., in response to message #4 by aurelio There are four plastic stakes that hold the pieces together at the bottom of the calculator. The resistance you feel is normal. You either need to cut them with a skinny knife, or just snap them. I snapped them apart, just by pulling hard. You can hear them snapping one at a time. When I did it, I did it sideways so that I wasn't trying to snap all the stakes at one time, but rather was snapping them one at a time. Pictures

Re: HP 32sII with faulty keypad Message #6 Posted by aurelio on 20 Sept 2012, 5:15 p.m., in response to message #5 by Marcel Samek Thank-you for sharing the pics and for the advices Opened it....next destination a box, for me too, waiting for moreluck.....:) I removed the PCB and after that dark night... even after cleaning the contacts... in teh 41 posts, here the foam............ At the beginning it was "just" matter of point G search, now it's a whole defeat! To get contact and just life on the display I've to twist, press, and............. I'm not able to describe my feelings Edited: 20 Sept 2012, 5:18 p.m.

Re: HP 32sII with faulty keypad (partially SOLVED) Message #7 Posted by aurelio on 21 Sept 2012, 5:08 p.m., in response to message #6 by aurelio Reassembled the calculator, after applying the double coated polyest. tape....the problem of the fourth - fifth coloumn of the keyboard is solved...but there is now a new problem the one I've created removing the PCB...the zebra connections are lost............... EDIT: Opened, cleaned again, removed the zebra, replaced after a new cleaning, replaced the PCB and forced bending with more straight the fixing labels (I was scared at the beginning to break them!) WHOW, WHOW, WHOW it works!!!!!!! I've performed a selftest and the result is: KBD 01 then KBD 01-04 32SII-FAIL 8 where's the fault? I found a post in the archives this and actually I'm surprised reading that pioneers were made "not serviceable", If I well understood........ Edited: 22 Sept 2012, 10:12 a.m.

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