Bad HP 35s keyboard. Any luck with warranty?

[danube7]

Howdy Max,

Thanks for the reply.

Perhaps I was a bit reactionary when I discovered this failure mode, but no, I'm going to stick with my assessment. I did manage to call HP in the US after googling for a customer support number (I couldn't find a way through the HP web site), and the guy I spoke with was very helpful and suggested resetting the calculator (a soft reset with C, R/S and i). Interestingly, it *seems* to be a bit faster now in responding the keystrokes, but the problem is still occasionally there. I am definitely hitting the key, as I am getting that nice HP "click", but it's missing the 6 and I get "4". 2 ENTER x gives 4. I need to look very carefully if the 6 is registering each time I get the wrong answer, or if it's clicking without recording the 6. I am trying to hit the keys at about the same rate or little faster than I would normally enter numbers as I am working with the calculator.

You mention it "...is one of the better calculators of the last 15 years" - and there's the rub. I've been using an HP 32Sii for .... 23 years now, and it's a far superior calculator. I've never had an issue with missed keys on an HP keyboard - that's the whole point of the "HP click". I decided just to try the 35s for comparison. If the 35s is the best HP can make, that's a big step down. And I say this having regularly used an HP41CV, which crashed all the time, and sucked down batteries faster than I could replace them, and also an HP32e of the original clamshell design, in which the chips started getting loose, and it would just go blank. During a physics final, that was not fun, but with a gentle twist along the diagonal of the calculator, I was able to re-establish contact to get it to work, and I eventually sent it in for replacement. And I still have a working HP21 in my shop, and it's reliable.

As for the display, compared to the HP 32sii, it has too much glare, and I can barely see the decimal point. The 32sii has a much more matte screen, with less ambient reflection.

But the kicker is the missing keys. I'm using this calculator at work, every day, and if I can't trust that it's recording my input, it just ain't no good. A calculator that doesn't correctly display 2 ENTER 6 x = 12 100% of the time is nothing but a toy.

I'll try to get a replacement, and re-evaluate the model then. So far, this experiment in new HP models seems to be a failure.

Dan