Military 41C for auction

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

This is not about selling or buying, it's just a technical question about the 41C in this auction.

The seller states the machine needs to be reprogrammed because it's running a special software. What do you think how this is implemented? A replacement ROM or a soldered in module which autostarts?

For the records: my eBay name is mvcube.

[Frank Boehm (Germany)]

Using a module is the way to go, I don't believe HP ever made a calculator with a modified internal ROM. So either they are plain broken or the seller doesn't know how to use them (which is somewhat more likely in this case).
Judging by the images, there seems to be remains of a water/dustproof overlay on top of the calculator, I'd certainly ask if these remains are removable or if they are glued onto the calculator.

[Martin Pinckney]

Perhaps the seller just means that the calculators just have a "mortar fire" program in main memory, not that the ROM is different.

[Michael de Estrada]

Assuming that either the batteries are dead or missing, how long would a program be retained in memory? These calculators may have been sitting idle for decades.

[Martin Pinckney]

Well, he says "This item is in working condition", so they must have charged batteries in them. Perhaps they were only sold off by "the army" as surplus recently.

[Charles]

This reference indicates that the HP41 was used in the British Army until 2003. I doubt the batteries would have lasted that long.

http://members.tripod.com/~nigelef/fc_computer.htm