HP41 powers off

[Gary Cox]

Need help. I have a halfnut HP41CV that has started turning off at random much earlier than the normal battery saver. It even turns off at random when keys are being pressed. Memory is preserved up to the last keystroke. Is the battery saving function located totally in the CPU or is there some external component that could have gone bad? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Gary

[Vieira, Luiz C. (Brazil)]

Hi;

if it goes off while you're typing stuff in, chances are you have an easy-to-beat bad contact in the BATT/IO assy, either between batteries or mainboard. If you have to remove batteris and put them back on, or (don't blame me! Sometimes it is needed...) to squeeze or twist the calculator a bit so it turns on, then you are almost there: just open it and clean it.

If you are not confident about it, wait for some other posts that will guide you to other ways. Read this thread also, because it deals with related stuff.

Success!

[Rob Stone]

Thanks for the info, but unit only powers down (or as it states in the manual "times out") while it is idle.

[Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina)]

Check your batteries and contacts, it looks like a "low battery power" situation. Had your BAT indicator ever turned on?

I experienced a similar problem (without BAT showing), it had to do with marginal (somehow old but not discharged)batteries and bad contacts...

For tests, you should also remove any peripherals and modules, just to check if there is some influence; and also reset your machine (forcing a MEMORY LOST situation), to be sure there are no other factors influencing your tests.