Hi everyboby
I’ve found in a flea market an HP 42S in excellent cosmetic conditions. When I inserted batteries and turned it on I had no display and all keys (except ON) only played a beep when pressed and screen remained empty. The only way to turn it off was to remove batteries.
Pressing keys randomly I could see sometimes “Memory clear” on the first display line and the value of x register “x:0” followed by other figures I don’t remember on the second one. The batteries are good because they make an HP 12C and an HP 32S work fine.
I’ve tried all tips found here (and in the archives) and no way to make it work. Things I tried were :
- shorting battery terminals without batteries,
- E+, XEQ ON keys sequence,
- Reset key sequences as indicated in the owner manual.
I must add that the top of the right battery terminal is broken. Normally it looks like a reverse P and in my case it looks like an I. However, contact is made as I can hear beeps and see that screen is powered on.
Is contact surface important? Does anybody here have any idea on how to make it work?
Sincerely,
Michel