Safely charging my 65

[Don Shepherd]

Brad, here is how I operate my 65.

I got a battery pack on Ebay 2 or 3 years ago to replace one I got about 6 or 7 years ago. I had no indication that the older one was bad, but I thought it is probably a good idea to get a new pack every few years.

I generally operate my 65 from the battery pack. When I notice the decimal points all stay on (indicating low battery charge), I get out my AC adapter and plug it into the calc and let it charge for maybe 10 or 12 hours. I usually don't use the calc while it is charging, but on occasion I have and it worked fine. After 10 or 12 hours I unplug the calc from the AC adapter and run it off the newly charged batteries, and it has always worked fine. Since I only use it irregularly, I guess it probably runs a few months between charges.

Right, the one thing I would never do (based on what I have read from many others) is to operate it from the AC charger without the battery pack present in the calc.

The only "accident" I ever had with my 65 is when all of my standard pac magnetic cards could not be read one day, and I have a feeling that the pak got too close to a magnet somewhere (probably on the side of my filing cabinet). But another user told me the secret to re-recording the pak cards by tricking the 65 to think the card is unprotected, and that worked like a charm.

Don