A few day ago a receiver the next question:

After having used this calculator for 24 years now,
suddenly the system-language has changed from
German to English. How to switch it back to German?
The INTL item has disappeared from the modes menu.
The serial-nr is 2809A93321 HP1987 MADE IN USA.
A hard reset by removing the batteries and short the battery terminals didn't solve this problem.

Any other suggestion?

The 17b has an auto-detect feature. If it detects that its user's English is above college level, it disables all other languages.

I wonder what would come out if you ran it painstakingly through the ROM extraction process? Would it spit out the original International ROM, or this strange switch?

Have you tried resetting via the sequence CLR + third menu key from the left? That might work.

You could perform the self-test. If you get OK-17B-I, I believe that means you have the international version, which has the language selections. If you get OK-17B-E, you have the English-only version.

I've never heard of an international version turning into an English-only version before. If true, that would seem to be a ROM defect.

I also think it is the ROM.


A few years ago a downloaded the ROM of a HP-17B for the EMU42 emulator.

The ROM size was 96K. That's 32K more than the ROM size of the LEWIS processor.

So, i think this calculator has an additional ROM for the languages.

As a test I emulated the original ROM image with EMU42. It emulates as an international version.
The language selection is available.

Then I stripped 32K at the end of the ROM image.
This ROM emulates as an HP-17B without the language selection!


Conclusion: The additional ROM is no longer detected by the calculator.

Edited: 13 Feb 2012, 1:07 p.m.

So when you do the self-test, do you get OK-17B-E or OK-17B-I?

Quote:

---

You could perform the self-test. If you get OK-17B-I, I believe that means you have the international version, which has the language selections. If you get OK-17B-E, you have the English-only version.

I've never heard of an international version turning into an English-only version before. If true, that would seem to be a ROM defect.

---

I fully agree with Don.

The difference between the International and the English version of the 17B is the additional 32KB ROM chip mapped at address #20000. The English/Basic 64KB ROM (inside the Lewis CPU chip) look at startup at address #20000 for the sequence 20000:F3C5A (output of the build in memory scanner). If the sequence is found the English ROM calls a specified address inside the additional 32KB ROM for the international initialization.

Here're HP82240B log's of the self test (done with Emu42 and HP82240B printer simulation)

17B International:

SPD 1004240

ROM  OK

ROM2 OK

DRAM OK

URAM OK

OK-17B-I

COPYRIGHT HP 1987

17B English:

SPD 1005392

ROM  OK

DRAM OK

URAM OK

OK-17B-E

COPYRIGHT HP 1987

One difference between the International and English version is the already mentioned OK message. The 2nd difference is the additional "ROM2 OK" message at the International version.

Any repeating byte sequence at address #20000 like 20000:A3A3A3 looks like an open data bus, in the case of the International version that means a defect around the additional ROM chip.

Christoph

Unfortunately i don't have the calculator here.

I received the question by email.

I will ask to owner to perform the self test and report the results.


Many thanks.

Thanks Christoph. I didn't know about that ROM2 OK in the self-test, thanks for that info.

Only the coolest forum this side of the galaxy :-)