Questions about 32SII and 18C variations

[Thomas Radtke]

Hi *,

I have two questions about variations of the 32SII and 18C:

(i) my old 32SII (serial 3136S05168, bought in '92 in Germany w/ a dutch manual) has this 'fixed denominator bug'. I'm interested to hear whether this has been corrected in later versions. Btw., what is this thing about prices of $300 and more for a calculator that has been about 70DM (35EUR) before. As soon as I saw this strange prices I was forced to pick up one of these ultracheap 48G's just to not have to touch this device anymore:(.

(ii) my 18C (serial 2744A01171) has 'shifted key' labels on its alphanumeric keyboard. I haven't seen this on any picture I found and the manual states that they shouldn't be there. I got this calculator from an ebay auction (18EUR, seems to be not too beloved:) and thus I don't know if its original or a replacement part from a 19BII. Any infos about a keyboard design change with the 18C?

Thanks,

Thomas

[Bert K]

About 32SII prices, since its discontinuation 32SII prices have gone through the roof. I saw a site (samsoncables.com) asking $399 for a new silver or a brown bezel. A refurbished brown bezel was $299.

The good news however is that good deals can still be found. I bought a like new 32SII silver bezel for 35 EURO last month...

I don't now about the 'fixed denominator bug', I'd have to check both my 32SII's. I have an old brown bezel and the newer silver bezel.

[Thomas Radtke]

Hi Bert,

I don't know any details of this bug as I never tried this feature (setting flag 9, that is). There was simply an 'update' notice added to the manual that warns about that bug.

I too think that you can still make a bargain on ebay if you're patient enough:). When it comes to hp calcs in particular, one could make a life buying in Germany and selling in the US. There's always a reasonable arbitrage:).
Anyway, I still wonder who is paying this prices. The 32SII is a nice machine, no doubt, but it's still more or less low end. Electronic devices are no good speculative objects either as they tend to die quickly compared to oil paintings or similar objects.

Thomas

[Juan J]

While I cannot say much about the 32SII, the 18C has shifted characters on its alphanumeric keyboard. They are not exactly listed on the manual and somebody made overlays for them. They include relational operators, question marks and other things (I might be wrong on this,) some of them useful for printing messages with the 82240 printe. For you it might take a little trial and error to figure them all, but it's woth it.

I got my 18C from the estate of an insurance broker (who had recently passed away) with the overlay, which turned to be quite handy.

[Bert K]

I checked both my 32SII's. They both do not suffer from the fixed denominator bug (see here: http://www.finseth.com/~fin/hpdata/hp32sii.html).
The brown bezel is an Indonesian ID8290xxxx and the silver bezel is an Indonedian ID1110xxxx.

[Thomas Radtke]

Checked mine too, it has the bug(s). It is an early Singapore model. I can live with that since I never seriously used the fraction mode--but anyway, all these bugs in hp calcs are really annoying.

Thomas

[Ed Look]

Gentlemen, I have been following your thread with a bit of interest, as I own a 32SII also. But I bought mine back in March of 2001 and according to the serial number decoding scheme found elsewhere on this site, it was manufactured in Indonesia in 1999, presumably in late April.

I tested my unit according to the fractional display tests found on Craig Finseth's site, but mine tests correctly! I suppose HP must have built into later units updated ROMS with the correct programming.

Incidentally, does anyone know about when they started to sell the silver bezel version (the one with the blue and white shift keys)?

[Bert K]

According to Viktor Toth the silver bezel was made from 1999 until the discontinuation of the 32SII in 2002.

http://www.rskey.org/detail.asp?manufacturer=Hewlett-Packard&model=HP-32SII+Silver

[Paul Brogger]

I suspect that 32SII prices should fall somewhat as the 33S becomes available, though it's unlikely that we'll again routinely find examples as low as ~$70.00 .