HP-42S fail message

[John]

I just bought an HP-42S (without batteries) at a flea market. Back home I put batteries in and when I ran the self test I get a "fail 00020" message. What does this mean and can this be fixed?

[Erik Ehrling (Sweden)]

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I just bought an HP-42S (without batteries) at a flea market. Back home I put batteries in and when I ran the self test I get a "fail 00020" message. What does this mean and can this be fixed?

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I suppose that you are running the EXIT + LN test? It is normal for this test to display "FAIL 00020" when you break out of the test by pressing any key. What is important is whether it displays the "OK-42S-E" message or not before the test loops... Hopefully it does display the "OK-42S-E" message - and your HP-42S is all OK!

Best regards,

Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

[John]

Hi Erik,
Nope, I'm not getting that "OK-42S-E" message during the manual self test. The other self test, the continual test does not run. Odd thing is that I am sometimes getting a "Machine Reset" or a "Memory Clear" message when I press the LN, XEQ, COS, TAN, or E key. Occasionally the ENTER key or EXIT key produces a continual beep sound. I am definitely baffled.
John

[Nelson M. Sicuro (Brazil)]

Maybe this can be a bad contact on the memory chip (broken/cold solder?)...

Best regards,

Nelson

[Erik Ehrling (Sweden)]

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Maybe this can be a bad contact on the memory chip (broken/cold solder?)...

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Yes, the constant beep definitely sounds like it, in that case it would make for a golden opportunity for a RAM upgrade :-)


Best regards,

Erik Ehrling (Sweden)

Edited: 11 Apr 2005, 5:26 p.m.