WP 34s battery problem

[robberknight]

(05-05-2015 10:09 PM)Elite Wrote:  I have tried putting new batteries but after two weeks the same symptoms appear rather quickly again.

Since the WP 34s firmware is stable and known not to cause issues like this it sounds like a hardware problem with your calculator to me.

One possible cause could be a crack in one of the ceramic capacitors. That would lead to a higher leakage current and drain your battery.

Do you have a good multimeter with enough resolution and a low milliampere range? Then you could apply 3 volts, keep the calculator in standby, and measure the average standby/off current. If you measure more than about 10µA then there is something broken.

Unfortunately it is not easy to pinpoint the problem to one exact component unless you have a near short circuit. But then the calculator would not show anything even with new batteries.

Did you install the crystal with the capacitors? Maybe the capacitors got a crack while soldering. Ceramic capacitors are quite sensitive to mechanical stress (which can be caused by expansion due to heat during soldering).