The Museum of HP Calculators

HP Memories Forum

[ Return to the Index ]
[ Previous | Next ]


OOPs ! Wrong Battery in a HP-41CV

Posted by Eduardo Munoz on 31 July 2002, 8:40 p.m.

I have an HP-41CV that I purchased in a trip to US in 1980. I used it for the last two years of my Mechanical Engineering studies at the Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, Venezuela. Later I used it at my first job, but I finally decided to keep it at home, so it would not get "lost".

The other day I took out of the drawer I keep it, and noticed that the batteries were low, so I went to the refrigerator where I keep several batteries stored (they are suppose to last more that way, maybe it is just another urban legend ...).

I noticed that I had a battery labeled 23A used for garage remote controls, that was almost the same size of the N batteries used by the HP-41CV. So I placed 4 in the calculator and switched on.

The LCD's blinked and went off, so I shut it down. Humm, maybe these batteries are not the same, so I opened the lid and saw (to my horror) that the battery said 12 V!

Wow, I had fed the HP with 48 volts instead of 6 volts !!

I thought I had cooked the HP, and it didn't work for several days. At the end after removing the Stat1 and Math ROM drawers I had bought with the HP, I finally got it to work, although sometimes when I start it, it displays "Memory Lost".

So, be careful with the batteries you use ....

Password:

[ Return to the Message Index ]

Go back to the main exhibit hall