battery life and the 50G

[Al]

I believe it is a "new topic". If not, apologies.

I've seen the HP 50G described as "a battery eater". Accepting that as the case, the AAA battery's "service life" described as perhaps 4 hours, spare batteries or rechargeable types are a solution to that problem.

What I'm curious about is the life or "service life" of the "memory backup battery", also known as CR2032, the round wafer battery that resides under the battery compartment. I have rechargeable AAA's in the calculator, along with a spare set of AAA's and a spare for the CR2032, but am curious as to how long the "memory backup batterry" might last.

[Eddie W. Shore]

In my experience the back up battery (CR2032) lasts a long time - practically years.

[Bart (UK)]

Hi,

In the User's Guide (the 880+ page one) at the end of chapter 26, it is recommended that the backup battery is replaced every 5 years.

[Han]

Yes, in my experience the HP50G is a batter hog. However, if you mainly use it at your desk, consider getting a USB plug for it and power the calculator via USB. Then you never have to worry about batteries until you're away from you desk.

[Chris Randle (UK)]

I use my 50g daily, sometimes for a minute or two, and at other times writing and running programs for hours. I'm using 1000mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries. The shortest time between swapping batteries has been about 2 weeks, and the longest about 10. I'd estimate actual runtime to be 30-40 hours. I bought the calculator two-and-a-half years ago, and I'm still on the original CR2032 cell. Just stuck it on a voltmeter and it reads 3.15V.