Now I have a voice in my head saying "you were sooo stupid to buy this HP calculator"

[BartDB]

I'm talking about the HP-39gii

- The current firmware has bugs that make it unusable for me
- The firmaware has not been updated since October 2013
- Now it is on a "clearance sale", an indication that seems it is at end-of-life
[See the bottom of the page: http://www.studentcalculators.co.uk/acat...ators.html ]


I've been duped.
I would expect that from something I bought from China (I've actually been quite impressed by my China purchases - and when there's been a problem, I got a replacent or money back, no quibble).
But it hurts when it is from a company I've been loyal to for around 3 decades (I was so impressed with my first HP calculator I have purchased HP printers, oscilloscopes, desktops etc.).

So no more HP for me.

[Thomas Radtke]

In consumer electronics early adopters aren't early birds but rather early worms. Don't buy a product unless you know it is what you want.

[Gerald H]

Hardly an early adopter!

Not only unusable for you but for any poor soul who paid good money for a bad product which then received NO support from the producer.

I look at mine on the shelf & laugh.

[Jim Horn]

Considering how many folks on this forum go to great lengths to add to their collections, I would suspect there may be some who would consider obtaining yours as an example of the machine that lead to the Prime. No, it doesn't have the Prime's full set of functions, color / touch display, thin size, RPN (sigh), etc., but programming and use is similar. And no rechargeable battery pack - it runs on 1 to 4 AAA cells for a long time. And fast, too - I use my WP 34S or Free42 for most number crunching, my HP 50g for financial, unit conversion, and other heavier lifting - and my HP 39gII for matrix, amortization, and fast calculation of more complex problems. Yes, there's MATLAB and such but that's another story.

[Sukiari]

In the UK there is a fitness for purpose law that says a defective consumer product may be returned for a full refund.

This kind of thing is not great for HP's corporate image.

Return that thing and get a 50G or a WP-34s instead!

[Hlib]

This is the quote from an old thread in former hp-forum:

HP39GII and access to the commands and some comments

<< After an execution of this program the calculator grows into the slowest one with plotting and some other functions.

EXPORT TEST2()
BEGIN
N:=4;
FOR I FROM 1 TO N STEP 1 DO
L1:=RANDOM(200,0,10);
L2:=SORT(L1); {}; END;
END;

Only <power OFF, ON> returns it to normal speed. If we make "N:=6" here, it will hang up till pressing ON+F3. Message is "Warning: Memory full!". But in fact, memory is not full: you can check it in Memory Manager after first execution with N:=4. >>

Now memory bugs and hangups passed from 39gii to Prime. What about serious and big programs then there (eg. 20...40 thousands of steps I sometimes did on FX-2.0)? I already can't do without HP-50G - the fact. But easely without 39gii and Prime.

[Martin Hepperle]

Hi,

after reading all these sobering comments, I would like to learn more about the screen quality of the machine. From the technical specs for me the most interestingg feature would be the screen which seems to be radically different from previous units.

Any comments on display quality in comparison to similar devices like the HP 39/40?

Martin

[Gerald H]

You can safely ignore the specs.

The HP 30b had/has a great assortment of statistical calculations not seen on other financial calculators - some of them manage to partially function, some give different results when the input is presented in different manners.

The spec sheet was great advertising & fooled some (I bought models & used them in my classes) but I now advise students to specifically avoid 30b.

So much for long term advertising.

[Joe Horn]

(07-31-2015 08:38 AM)Gerald H Wrote:  You can safely ignore the specs.

The HP 30b had/has a great assortment of statistical calculations not seen on other financial calculators - some of them manage to partially function, some give different results when the input is presented in different manners.

The spec sheet was great advertising & fooled some (I bought models & used them in my classes) but I now advise students to specifically avoid 30b.

So much for long term advertising.

30b? I thought this thread was about the 39gII.

[BartDB]

(07-31-2015 01:34 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  [...]
30b? I thought this thread was about the 39gII.

I think Gerald is implying that he feels the similarly about the 30b as I do about the 39gii.

[BartDB]

(07-30-2015 06:04 PM)Sukiari Wrote:  In the UK there is a fitness for purpose law that says a defective consumer product may be returned for a full refund.
[...]

I know, but now it's out of warranty so I'll have to convince HP that the product was never fit for purpose (and the reason I did not return it earlier was the implied promise of HP about updates to the firmware).

[BartDB]

(07-31-2015 07:56 AM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  Hi,

after reading all these sobering comments, I would like to learn more about the screen quality of the machine. From the technical specs for me the most interestingg feature would be the screen which seems to be radically different from previous units.

Any comments on display quality in comparison to similar devices like the HP 39/40?

Martin

The screen is nice and overall the hardware seems quite good. Only objection is the orange print which is sometimes difficult to read particularly on the grey buttons.

I can't speculate too much on the durability as obviously I have not used it heavily.

It would have been nice if HP had sorted some of the firmware problems and released updates even half as often as for the Prime. (Since Nov 2013, Prime has had 4 updates: 6030, 6975, 7820 & 8151. 39gii none).

[Gerald H]

(07-31-2015 01:34 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  

(07-31-2015 08:38 AM)Gerald H Wrote:  You can safely ignore the specs.

The HP 30b had/has a great assortment of statistical calculations not seen on other financial calculators - some of them manage to partially function, some give different results when the input is presented in different manners.

The spec sheet was great advertising & fooled some (I bought models & used them in my classes) but I now advise students to specifically avoid 30b.

So much for long term advertising.

30b? I thought this thread was about the 39gII.

No, it's about the stupidity of us who buy such products & producers, specifically HP, then disowning responsibility.

[factor]

Is it that bad? The screen resolution is great and from what i heard the speed is what a "modern" calculator should perform.

To be honest, about half year ago after heard about this calculator model and played with the emulator I tried very hard to find one but there isn't any here. I emailed HP and got no response.

If I remembered it correctly, the manufacturer of the core processor of this model was acquired by another company and since then it appears that HP basically gave up this model.

[Thomas Radtke]

(08-01-2015 03:40 AM)factor Wrote:  If I remembered it correctly, the manufacturer of the core processor of this model was acquired by another company and since then it appears that HP basically gave up this model.

And here's the reason (2): Management didn't want an entry level machine.

[debrouxl]

Perhaps the management, but clearly, a significant proportion of (potential) users: color has been the norm for new calculator models (new designs, more precisely) since before the 39gII hit the market.

All of the following calculator models feature a color screen:
* Casio Prizm / fx-CG10/20 (late 2010);
* Nspire CX (spring of 2011) and the degraded, cheaper Nspire CM-C series aimed at China;
* 84+CSE (spring of 2013), whose hardware is inferior to that of the 39gII;
* fx-CP400 (spring of 2013), the color screen has touch functionality;
* Prime (late summer of 2013), color touch screen as well;
* 83PCE / 84+CE (spring of 2015).

Outliers newer than 2010 featuring a monochrome screen include:
* the '2012 39gII, which is new hardware;
* the '2015 82A aimed at the French market. That's only a slight modification of the old monochrome 84+ technology. Technically an improvement over 83-class 76.fr / 82 Stats(.fr) and 83+-class 82+. Yes, TI calculator model names are confusing.
* the '2015 Graph 25-E and 35-E models aimed at the French market. Again, those are slight modifications of old models.

[Thomas Radtke]

(08-01-2015 07:55 AM)debrouxl Wrote:  Perhaps the management, but clearly, a significant proportion of (potential) users:

Maybe, but I'm sure a likewise significant share of potential users (or rather their parents) cannot easily afford a Prime.

[BartDB]

(07-31-2015 02:17 PM)BartDB Wrote:  

(07-30-2015 06:04 PM)Sukiari Wrote:  In the UK there is a fitness for purpose law that says a defective consumer product may be returned for a full refund.
[...]

I know, but now it's out of warranty so I'll have to convince HP that the product was never fit for purpose (and the reason I did not return it earlier was the implied promise of HP about updates to the firmware).

So I thought I'd get hold of HP support for the 39gii. The only option listed is "Phone", and don't expect it to be at a time convenient to the consumer (I used to have a job where it would have been impossible to call at those times):

[Gerald H]

(08-01-2015 08:36 AM)BartDB Wrote:  

(07-31-2015 02:17 PM)BartDB Wrote:  I know, but now it's out of warranty so I'll have to convince HP that the product was never fit for purpose (and the reason I did not return it earlier was the implied promise of HP about updates to the firmware).

So I thought I'd get hold of HP support for the 39gii. The only option listed is "Phone", and don't expect it to be at a time convenient to the consumer (I used to have a job where it would have been impossible to call at those times):

I once criticised walterb for using the generic term "customer" (in that instance I preferred "member" of the forum).

I consider the term "consumer product" a bad construction, does it mean something like "HP product"?

Is "consumer" even more generic than "customer"?

In Bart's case I'd prefer "dupe" to "consumer".

[Sukiari]

(07-31-2015 01:34 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  

(07-31-2015 08:38 AM)Gerald H Wrote:  You can safely ignore the specs.

The HP 30b had/has a great assortment of statistical calculations not seen on other financial calculators - some of them manage to partially function, some give different results when the input is presented in different manners.

The spec sheet was great advertising & fooled some (I bought models & used them in my classes) but I now advise students to specifically avoid 30b.

So much for long term advertising.

30b? I thought this thread was about the 39gII.

Actually it looks like the thread's about feeling dumb for being deceived by slick marketing and purchasing a defective HP calculator.

Seems like it'd be apropos for 35s buyers to chime in too, and maybe 15cLE purchasers as well.