HP40 acts funny

[Mike (Stgt)]

Somebody here who knows a bit more than me about the HP-40G? Or is there an other list for those ACO calculators?

At last I found the time to play a bit with a HP-40G and it's CAS (poor and errorfull translated manual!). The calculator does not show the results printed in the manual. And - even worse - in 5 days I had to reset it 3 times, once with ON+F3, next day with ON+F1+F6 and some hours later wiht a needle in the back hole.

Retyping the examples of the CAS manual suddenly the beeper chirped (a sound close to "burp") and the CAS history had several lines of 'External'. Remembers me a bit the old days when exploring synthetic programming on the HP-41. But as a novice on the HP-40G I shurely did nothing special.

Seems I have to use intensively my HP200LX to backup all data from the HP-40G.

Ciao.....Mike

PS: Salut Emmanuel! Merci pour le manuel PANAME en anglays. M.

[Arnold Steekelenburg]

Hi Mike,

Maybe you could be a bit more specific. Which example were you trying to compute?

Subscribe to the usenet newsgroup comp.sys.hp48. The development team of the HP39/40/49 reads this newsgroup too. Bernard Parisse, the author of the CAS responds to questions too.

Colin Croft maintains a website dedicated to the HP38/39/40. It contains a FAQ.

The adress is: http://members.iinet.net.au/~ccroft/

Arnold

[Mike (Stgt)]

Thank you for the URL and the hint to the newsgroup.

Ciao.....Mike

[Mike (Stgt)]

I am able to do my eMails on a HP200LX but with newsgroups I have no experience (well, I contributing to the Pipeing list, but that works via eMail). Just looked for comp.sys.hp48 at www.usenet.com and fount that they ask for money (99 USD a year). Ehm - sorry, I'll take that money to get me an other calculator.

Ciao.....Mike

[Raymond Del Tondo]

Hi,

maybe the programmer of the CAS, Bernard Parisse,
could help you.
Search the newsgroup comp.sys.hp48 to fetch articles from him.

But for the errors:

Did you exactly like the manual said?

Same flag settings, same key strokes?

Did you load any third party software into the machine?

Maybe there is more than one ROM revision,
so checking this could be helpful.

Unfortunately, the 39G/40G can't be upgraded,
just replaced...
if the machine is still under warranty,
and the errors don't go away,
I think chances are good to get it replaced.

Raymond

[Mike (Stgt)]

Hi Reymond,

I did load several aplets I found on hpcalc.org and JYA (using a HP200LX and data transfer via kermit). Then I went to serious work and tried to wade through the CAS manual and could not get PARTFRAC (chapter 4.10.8) to show the same answer as given in the manual.

What makes me upset is the poor translation to german of the CAS manual (the french version I found on the Internet is some classes better). Seems there is no editorial department at HP. And there are commands mentioned for the Tools menu that do not show on the calculator.

And a legal issus is the CE sign on the package. With this kind of documentation they are not allowed to show a CE sign. Sorry.

BTW, did you find the Squid Bar Code Module in your collection? More on this topic off-list, pls.

Ciao.....Mike

[Raymond Del Tondo]

Hi Mike,

SKWDINK: I know I had it on tape, but when I looked the last time, nearly all tapes were unreadable:-(
So the only rom images that remained are the ones I was able to save to my HD...and the ones I got from you.

40G: Please remove all external software,
and try again.

Then, you can reinstall one aplet after the other,
checking functionality after each one loaded.

Does the CE logo include documentation quality?

Hmm. I just ordered a 40G (was cheap) for my collection,
maybe I should leave it in it's blister pack to avoid
any unwanted surprise?

Cheers,

Raymond

[GE (France)]

Did someone notice that answers sometimes look different on the 39G and the 40G ?
In the manual, some screenshot show the two versions.
I remember something like "X+-2" for the 39 and "X-2" for the 40 or the like.
Aren't these machines expected to be similar, apart from the CAS ?

[Mike (Stgt)]

AFAIK, JYA somewhere stated, if you try to "augment" your HP40 with an IR device you will loos the CAS. But it may be possible that manuals are written with a beta of the calc. The command VERSION shows a different result on the calculator than on it's emulation where with F2 (in the HOME view) you may toggle HP39/HP40.

Ciao.....Mike

[Mike (Stgt)]

In guideline 89/392/EWG of the European Council (published in the official gazette No. L 183/9) you find in Chapter II the prerequisites to show the EG-sign consisting of the letters "CE" and the last two digits of the year. In appendix I, top 1.7.4 the user manual is definded. If the product and it's documentation does not fulfil the guidelines the producer could be forced to withdraw it. Well, lots of f***ing legal stuff we pay for with our taxes.

In other words: with the letters "CE" in round shape it is declared the conformity with all guidelines of the European Council applicable for the product. And I regard the german version of the CAS manual not to be in accordance with anything.

First I purchased the HP-40G only for my calculator collection, but for curiosity reasons I had a closer look last week. A bit disapointed at the moment I would advice someone whe needs a graphing calculator to get a HP-48GX. Or get a HP200LX and use the whole bunch of DOS programs you still find on the Net.

BTW, not only for math teachers it is realy worth to look at http://members.iinet.net.au/~ccroft/

Ciao.....Mike