Samson Cables update

[Eric Lundgren]

Hi all,

This sounds kinda promising (off of Samsoncables.com)

>>Product Alerts
This new calculator is not available yet but we expect it to arrive with the next week. One of our suppliers told us on October 10th that HP had confirmed the product had shipped to them and that they expected them within the next week. <<

Lets hope for the best,
Eric

[Art Litka]

I happened to stop by my local calculator dealer for a quick Friday afternoon chat and not really expecting anything new. You can imagine my surprise when he pulled out a 49G+! He had three in stock and had already sold two. His shipment arrived last Friday (Oct 3). To my delight he said he would let me try one out and opened the package. After installing the batteries, I breathlessly awaited his pressing of the ON button. When the moment arrived, nothing happened-no display or beep. He was as surprised as I was-in all his years in the business, a new HP unit has never failed the turn-on test. We checked the batteries and connections and tried several times to fire it up but nothing. He opened unit 2 with the same result! However, the last unit was the charm-it worked beautifully!
The keyboard has a good tactile feel and the display contast is very good. There was no hesitation with registering the keystrokes as on the 49. The time to graph a simple function was not lightning fast but still impressive. Believe it or not, I did not purchase it today-I wanted to think about it over the weekend. I am impressed by what I have seen and tried out so far-even the starter manual appears to be an improvement over the old 49's. I guess I was a bit shaken by the quality control and wanted some time to think about it. He said that the 33S is expected in mid November. Any other experieces out there?

[Joesph]

Your dealer probably has the early ROM problem. The early ROM will suck power even while the calculator is off. I suggest you upgrade and all will be well.

[Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina)]

Two questions about a previous message:

1) How could you upgrade the Flash ROM of a machine which doesn't turn on?

2) How could a power management software issue deplete uninstalled batteries?

[V-PN]

Two questions about a previous message:

1) How could you upgrade the Flash ROM of a machine which doesn't turn on?
VPN_Answer: Use a new set of batteries?

2) How could a power management software issue deplete uninstalled batteries?
VPN_Answer: Part_1) Bad batteries?

VPN_Answer: Part_2) European Boxed calcs come with batteries installed AND there was a power-management issue (possibly due to unannounced change in one pin of the used CPU) which should be fixed any_day_now by a new ROM

[Andrés C. Rodríguez (Argentina)]

The person reporting the Orlando experience states: "After installing the batteries..." and also says "We checked the batteries and connections, and tried several times to fire it up, but nothing", so the batteries are not factory installed on those units, and it seems they were not discharged either.

I'm afraid that those units have a more fundamental problem than the already-mentioned power management issue.

[Art Litka]

Being the person reporting the Orlando (Fla-USA) experience, I would agree that these early 49G+'s have quality control problems. I think that the model is potentially a very good calculator, far superior to the 49 in all ways. It will probably take some problems from "early buyers" to help the rest of us obtain the quality and reliability from HP that we expect. I am eager to own one after my "test drive", but I may wait until the larger retailers have them as you suggest.

[James M. Prange (Michigan)]

Oh yeah, that's really promising. With any luck, the supplier might receive them from HP next week, and Samson Cables might receive them from the supplier the week after that, and then Samson Cables can get them packed up, labeled and on the way to the customers....

Oh, and then the customers get to try them and see if they work....

Regards,
James

Edited: 11 Oct 2003, 7:49 a.m.