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Benetton · (This post was last modified: 09-13-2024 12:26 PM by Benetton.)

Hello,

My HP50g is about 15 years old, I used it a lot when I was on college, but it is sitting in a drawer for the last 10 years (I use 50G emulators on PC and phone everyday). Way back, when it was maybe 2 years old, as I changed batteries 3 horizontal lines on the LCD went blank and never came back. Learned to live with it.

But thats not the main problem. I wanted to use a physical calculator at work and got some fresh batteries and it worked flawlessly until I turn it off. Then, the ON button does not work. Nothing wakes the calculator. The only way to turn it on again is to remove and replace a battery, making it wake up. The ON button works fine when the calculator is turned on.

Any thoughts? Haven't tried reinstalling FW, but it might work? It looks like a software problem on the stand-by.

franz.b · 09-15-2024, 10:14 AM

I would also try checking/replacing the backup battery.

Bye

Steve Simpkin · 09-15-2024, 11:27 AM

Try pressing down firmly on the area between the top row of keys and the display while trying to turn it on.

Benetton · 09-15-2024, 09:50 PM

Hi, thanks for the replies.
So, today I was going to try to reinstall the firmware to see if that would solve the problem. So I took the SD out, put on computer, and got the batteries (BTW the backup battery was also new last time, all batteries were) and put them inside the calculator. It sprang to life and I decided to test the issue once more before reinstalling the fw. And now it turned on.
The only difference was the lack of the SD card. So I put the sd card inside and the problem came back. Some taking it out and in sometimes, messing with the SD card lock and seems like some crazy bad connection was causing it. Right now its working. I'm thinking it may be some corosion or broken solder somewhere around the SD card slot. I'll use it for some time to see if the problem reappears and, if so, will try to open it to check the guts of my old fella.

Thanks again, I'll update the thread with the outcome, specially if I find the culprit.

franz.b · 09-16-2024, 08:06 AM

(09-15-2024 09:50 PM)Benetton Wrote: Hi, thanks for the replies.
So, today I was going to try to reinstall the firmware to see if that would solve the problem. So I took the SD out, put on computer, and got the batteries (BTW the backup battery was also new last time, all batteries were) and put them inside the calculator. It sprang to life and I decided to test the issue once more before reinstalling the fw. And now it turned on.
The only difference was the lack of the SD card. So I put the sd card inside and the problem came back. Some taking it out and in sometimes, messing with the SD card lock and seems like some crazy bad connection was causing it. Right now its working. I'm thinking it may be some corosion or broken solder somewhere around the SD card slot. I'll use it for some time to see if the problem reappears and, if so, will try to open it to check the guts of my old fella.

Thanks again, I'll update the thread with the outcome, specially if I find the culprit.

Well, I'm glad you found the culprit. About the SD card, try other copies and try formatting it to FAT16.