HP-29C: another faulty calculator through eBay...
#1

I just received another calculator through eBay, HP-29C this time, and it doesn't work. The seller claimed it needs a new battery pack. I instead plugged new alkaline batteries in and I got all sorts of fancy shows from the LED segments. Is it that AA alkalines don't work on the machine or that there are way too many crooks out there?

#2

Can you not return it?

#3

I haven't asked the seller yet but he mentioned on his ad that he won't accept returns. He mentioned that the calculator needs a new battery pack, but it should work with regular alkaline AA's, right? Maybe I should use that as my defense since the problem is not the battery pack or the power source.

#4

Beware the ebay hucksters. When possible, buy from people who actually owned the product and know something about it. There are many businesses / pseudo-businesses on ebay now that are clueless about what they sell. They are usually easy to spot..."when powered, the unit lights up but I don't have the (disk,terminal,speaker,expertise,time,whatever) to test it further". With calcs it's more along the lines of "don't have a battery pack" Yeah, right. Batt packs are cheap to buy (on ebay), and cheaper to build yourself. If the calc owner never bothered with this it should tell you something.

#5

John,
That's very insightful. I'm learning the hard way unfortunately. I guess one avenue I have right now is to at least send the non-working items to FixThatCalc, WaterHosko or any of the other repair places mentioned on the Repair page.
Thanks,
Andreas

#6

Quote:
Is it that AA alkalines don't work on the machine or

I myself have been using AA batteries in both my HP-21 and HP-29C, but I stopped this habit since I read somewhere that it *might* harm the calc, although in my case it fortunately didn't.
Ever since I only apply seperatedly recharged rechargables.

Still I think your device shouldn't react to batteries the way it does.



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