HP-50G screen black at startup...

[Peter Murphy]

...and contrast is not adjustable. All was working fine a few days ago.

Please advise.

I have not been on the Forum for several (maybe many) years -- I trust the same sage advice is still forthcoming.

[Joe Horn]

(08-30-2023 04:52 AM)Peter Murphy Wrote:  ...and contrast is not adjustable. All was working fine a few days ago. Please advise.

The "three-finger salute" (AKA "Vulcan Nerve Pinch") resets the contrast to its default. Press ON and F1 and F6 at the same time. When "Try To Recover Memory?" appears, press NO (if nothing happens, press F5 then NO). Recover your 50g's contents from the backup you prudently keep in Port 2 or Port 3.

If ON+F1+F6 doesn't launch, try poking a paperclip into the RESET hole in the back first.

Good luck!

[Peter Murphy]

Paperclip, then three fingers; then YES (not having backed up) and recovered!

Now may be the time for some prudence on my part: How does one back up to those Ports?

And how (having asked before and not followed up) does one back up to an SD card?

Many thanks, Joe!

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(08-30-2023 03:59 PM)Peter Murphy Wrote:  And how (having asked before and not followed up) does one back up to an SD card?

Here is a good (and rather short) tutorial: https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/O...20Card.pdf

Be careful about the SD card size, the largest that the HP-50g can handle is 2GB. It is getting more and more difficult to find small SD cards… on AliExpress they sell 64GB SD cards for 1,79 Euros including shipping. But unfortunately they won’t work with this calculator.

Regards
Max

[nickapos]

(08-30-2023 05:19 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(08-30-2023 03:59 PM)Peter Murphy Wrote:  And how (having asked before and not followed up) does one back up to an SD card?

Here is a good (and rather short) tutorial: https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/O...20Card.pdf

Be careful about the SD card size, the largest that the HP-50g can handle is 2GB. It is getting more and more difficult to find small SD cards… on AliExpress they sell 64GB SD cards for 1,79 Euros including shipping. But unfortunately they won’t work with this calculator.

Regards
Max

I have been able to re partition and reformat a larger disk and have it work with my hp50g, but now I can not read it from my computer. It works fine on the calculator though.
It is likely I do not have fat16 support on my systems. I need to debug that at some point

[LinusSch]

(08-30-2023 05:37 PM)nickapos Wrote:  It is likely I do not have fat16 support on my systems.

Yes, that is the likely explanation. I do not know the fix, but I know of an easy and effective workaround that is also a good tool for many similar IT problems: keep a live Linux USB stick handy. Boot to that, no need to install anything, it will support pretty much everything and gparted is the king of reformatting. Linux Mint is highly recommended to those who doesn't want computers to be complicated.

[franz.b]

(08-30-2023 05:37 PM)nickapos Wrote:  I have been able to re partition and reformat a larger disk and have it work with my hp50g, but now I can not read it from my computer. It works fine on the calculator though.
It is likely I do not have fat16 support on my systems. I need to debug that at some point

My win10 easily reads 1 and 2 GB SD cards formatted in fat16. ?‍♂️

[JanS]

With regard to low capacity SD Cards, it may help to search for industrial grade MicroSD Cards. Those are generally available in 2 GB Size and work with an Adapter from MicroSD to SD. No Need to spin up a linux USB Drive or any other shenanigans. They are a bit pricey, however they can even be formatted in the calculator itself - and Windows reads them just fine that way.

YMMV, just my $0.02

Syslogic in Germany even still sells 2GB SD Cards:
https://www.syslogic.shop/sd-cards-indus...%5D=433085

or you just google for these keywords and look at the shopping results: 2gb industrial micro sd slc

[nickapos]

(08-31-2023 07:49 AM)LinusSch Wrote:  

(08-30-2023 05:37 PM)nickapos Wrote:  It is likely I do not have fat16 support on my systems.

Yes, that is the likely explanation. I do not know the fix, but I know of an easy and effective workaround that is also a good tool for many similar IT problems: keep a live Linux USB stick handy. Boot to that, no need to install anything, it will support pretty much everything and gparted is the king of reformatting. Linux Mint is highly recommended to those who doesn't want computers to be complicated.

My card does not work on Linux. Not sure why, i need to spend some time on it.
The truth is that the card works fine on both of my 50g.
I have saved quite a few stuff and can transfer them from one calculator to the other.
It’s just the computers that cannot read it which is a shame because I could load new programs. I will debug it at some point when I have some spare time.

[ijabbott]

(08-31-2023 08:13 PM)nickapos Wrote:  My card does not work on Linux. Not sure why, i need to spend some time on it.

You could also try mtools as an alternative to trying to get the card's filesystem to mount.

[Peter Murphy]

I am reminded that at HHC some years ago , R Prosperi kindly gave me two short programs (MYBKP and REST) to back up and restore the contents of a 50g.

I still have those programs, but have at this point lost all the spoken instruction that accompanied them.

Bob, if you're there, could you enlighten me (and perhaps others)?

BTW, I also long ago acquired the SD card with which to carry out the backup.

[rprosperi]

This is a job for Joe Horn!!!

I can answer as they are very easy to use, due to being quite clever, but I don't want people thinking I wrote these (I'm not that clever); they were written by Joe, so I'll let him explain them.

And yes, they have saved my butt may times, but mostly they are super useful for cloning one's complete 50 environment onto a new machine, so when I pick up any one of my 50g's, they are all configured exactly the same.

Thanks Joe!!

[Joe Horn]

Here's the BACKUP program which you should run every time you change the configuration of your 50g in a significant way. I also run it right before messing around with System RPL or other forms of couch hacking, since it makes recovery from MEMORY LOST easy. I keep it in Port 2 but you can keep it in main memory or assigned to a key or in your custom menu or anyplace you please. It backs up main memory and your flags into Port 2.

Code:

'BACKUP'
<< :2:BKUP DUP PURGE ARCHIVE 1537 RCLF :2:FLGS DUP PURGE STO .1 BEEP 0 TMENU >>

Here's the BACKDOWN program which you should keep in Port 1. It restores your 50g from the backup created by the above BACKUP program. To run it after a MEMORY LOST, just press left-shift APPS [FILES], 1, highlight the BKDN program, and press EVAL.

Code:

'BKDN'
<< :2:FLGS EVAL STOF :2:BKUP RESTORE >>

If you have a very fast SD card installed, and if your backups are large, backing up will be faster if you change all the :2:'s above to :3:'s. The 1537 .1 BEEP is not necessary but I like it. 1537 was my PPC membership number.

[rprosperi]

Thanks Joe!

[Peter Murphy]

Thanks Joe from me too. It looks a lot simpler than the User Guide makes it out to be.