Memory Lost in HP-41CV

[Elias Lopez-Cruz]

Hello everybody!

I bought a month ago an HP-41CV on an "as-is" basis, at home I put the 6 volts necessary to bring back to life the calculator. I only heard a short beep and immediately appeared a MEMORY LOST message in the display. I tried the ON key in order to turn off the calculator and start again to no avail. I followed the instructions for a MEMORY LOST message as it is written in the instruction manual. It obeyed the procedure, afterwards there was no response to the ON key or any other at all. Does somebody have any idea to solve the problem. I greatly appreciate the help and your time.

[Steve (Australia)]

What sort of 6V?

Was it from a battery, or a plug=pack, or a regulated power supply, or something else?

Leaving it unpowered for a week or so should allow time for the capacitor inside to discharge... if that's all it is.

[Elias Lopez-Cruz]

It was a battery set (4 batteries of 1.5 V. I left more than a week the calculator with no power and tried again to no avail. Could it be something else?
Thanks.

[Steve (Australia)]

You could try geting a piece of foil snd plscing it scross the battery terminals for a while (without batteries!) and try again.

I believe some HP41s could last in excess of a week without batteries and still retain enough power to preserve the memory.

A while back I posted a list of 10 things you could try to do to recover a crashed calculator. I don't have time to repost them, but you might want to search for this posting and try those out.

As a last resort, take the batteries out, put the calculator in a drawer, and try again in June.

I have found that some HP-41s do sort of lock up when power is first applied after a prolonged period without batteries. The trick of removing and reinserting batteries, or the power on reset has always worked for me.

[Elias Lopez-Cruz]

Thanks Steve!

I will try every trick in the book. I'll keep you informed.