Kudos to TI...

[Jeff_Birt]

I recently found a TI-92 on fleaBay complete with box and manuals for a good price. It was an educational package not a retail which was interesting. I will say that the rumors of how terrible the TI-92 display is, are true. I have heard the TI-92Plus are much better.

This prompted me to get out my 20-year-old TI Voyage 200, the last of the TI-89/92 lineage, which I bought new. Put batteries in and it sprang to life. The formulas and notes I had put in were still there (no doubt in flash) and it 'just worked'.

Then a column of the LCD went out in front of my eyes. Then a second one, but it came back. This is a common failure of TIs as the conductive adhesive strips used on the LCD FFCs comes unstuck over time. Looking at pictures it seems the FFC for the columns folds UNDER the LCD while the one for the rows comes out the right side. This means you have to peal up the row FFC to try and fix the missing columns. I think for one missing column I'll leave well enough alone for new. If I can find a junk V200 with a bum LCD I'll experiment on it.

On the positive side I searched for the TI Connect software and found TI still hosts it on their website, but it was last updated for Win8. I downloaded it and installed it without incident on Win10 and proceeded to back up my V200.

So, kudos (sarcastically) to TI for making the LCD nearly impossible to repair.

Also, kudos (genuine) to TI for still having the PC interconnect software available for a 20-year-old calculator that 'just works' on modern operating systems.